Leon Turnbull Photography

It was a cold night camping at Devil’s Postpile. We made sure to bundle the kids up very warmly, so they were fine. My wife, though, didn’t pack enough warm clothes for herself. She was freezing all night. I don’t know why she didn’t ask me if I had an extra sweater (I did). Silly woman.

I trudged out of my warm sleeping bag at some unruly hour of the morning, and dragged my poor dog out of her warm spot as well. She wasn’t too pleased about that. The good thing about the cold in the morning, is the mosquitoes are not out yet. We hiked back to Rainbow Falls for sunrise. I did not have a chance the previous night to get down to the base of the falls, so I wanted to do that. There is a steep set of stairs from the top down to the bottom. It is pretty easy getting down, and my dog was down in two shakes and looking for a spot to dip in the water. She loves getting in the water at every opportunity. I, however, might have liked to have gotten in the water, but I had left my water shoes behind. They were completely frozen from being left overnight outside. The light at Rainbow Falls is rather flat in the morning. It is definitely better to be here for photographing at sunset, not sunrise, as the sun doesn’t get into the canyon until rather late in the morning. I was long gone by then.

Just a half mile below 101 ft. Rainbow Falls is Lower Rainbow Falls. It is one not as much visited as the upper falls, but really is a spunky little waterfall. It is certainly not the 101 ft. monster like its upstream neighbor, but it is a really nice 26 ft. high falls. It should not be bypassed so easily.

As I mentioned, we hiked down here as a family on our first day around sunset. The light was quite nice while photographing this waterfall. The kids and Tara were upstream by the base of the falls, throwing their rocks into the water (the kids, not Tara – but then again, maybe Tara was throwing as well). I got on my water shoes and made my way downstream to this viewpoint. I was right in the water while taking this shot, as far over as I possibly dared, before the water became too deep and strong. It was cold!

Welcome to the best waterfall in the Eastern Sierra of California. No question about it. Rainbow Falls plunges 101 ft. off a cliff on the Middle Fork of the San Joaquin River. A magnificent sight indeed. I’ve been wanting to come here for a few years now. And finally this year, we made it out to see Rainbow Falls.It was worth the wait.

We arrived at our campsite in the early afternoon. As I already mentioned, I was disappointed to see there were mosquitoes about. Argh. Not too many, but I wasn’t expecting any. I hate those little buggers. If I were Noah, I would have squashed the two that made it onto the Ark. Sigh. Anyway, after setting up camp and eating dinner, we hiked down to Rainbow Falls to be there for sunset. It is a 3 mile round-trip hike to Rainbow Falls, and then Lower Rainbow Falls. My six year old, Jadon, had no problems on any of the hiking we did this weekend. He is quite the little hiker. In fact, he wanted to keep on chugging on the last day when the rest of us were all too pooped to do any more hiking (including myself). My three year old, Nekoda, did very well on the hike to Rainbow Falls. She hiked 2.5 out of the 3 miles (we carried her the remainder of the way). I was very proud of how well she did on this hike. The next day, though, she was a bit too tired and I had to carry her for most of the hiking we did. It’s not easy carrying around a 35 pounder on your back (especially one that doesn’t sit still too well). My wife didn’t really like carrying all my camera equipment either (which was probably only a tad lighter than 35 pounds).

We went down to Lower Rainbow Falls first (that pic will be posted later). It was getting late and I wanted to make sure I got down to that waterfall. The kids had fun throwing rocks in the water, while I went to take pics. It is funny how kids can be so entertained by something so simple as throwing rocks in water. In fact, it is pretty much all they wanted to do all weekend. Ah, to be a kid again. After shooting the lower falls, Jadon and I whipped back up to the upper Rainbow Falls here, while Tara and Nekoda took their slow, sweet time hiking back. It was just about sunset, and the light was very nice shooting the upper Rainbow Falls. Sunset is definitely the best time to photograph this waterfall. By the time we made it back to the trailhead, we were hiking in the dark. It was a great first day at Devil’s Postpile Natl. Monument.

We just returned from a great three day camping trip to the Eastern Sierra Nevada region of California, to Devil’s Postpile at Mammoth Lakes. I’ve been wanting to go here for some years now, not to see this semi-half-interesting columnar basalt formation, but to see the fabulous waterfalls in this area. So this year, we were finally able to make a family trip out to the area to see them.

And of course, it would be a mighty shame not to attempt to photograph the actual Devil’s Postpile formation, since I am there already. This columnar basalt was created by a lava flow some many many years ago, and is certainly very striking in appearance. The distortion in the photo is intentional, but to be honest I spent very little time here photographing it. The mosquitoes were horrendous when I was here, a couple hours before sunset. I was swarmed upon as soon as I arrived. And frankly, I wanted to get out of there as soon as possible. So it was a quick setup, click the shutter, and bye bye Devil’s Postpile.

I hate summer for two reasons: (1) the heat, and (2) the mosquitoes. I normally don’t do much hiking in the summer months for these reasons, unless it is somewhere with none of the little buggers around. Frankly, I was a bit surprised to say the least that there were mosquitoes at Devil’s Postpile. We were here the first weekend the Monument was open (it is closed over the winter because of the snow), and I did not expect any mosquitoes so early in June. There weren’t that many around really (except right here at the Postpile), but I can’t imagine what this place would be like later in the summer, or why anyone would want to come here at that time either. Eck.

We just returned from a family camping trip to the Eastern Sierra region of California. I found 15 new waterfalls, and have many new photos to process from that trip. This is not one of them.

About one mile above Lower Glen Alpine Falls at Lake Tahoe you will come across this little gem. Upper Glen Alpine Falls is only 32 ft. high, but it is a little spitfire when it is flowing well in the spring. It is a very easy half-mile hike from the Desolation Wilderness trailhead, and is located right beside an old, abandoned cabin. Fortunately no one lives there anymore, and it is fine to cut in front of the cabin in order to get right down to the falls. It is a neat little waterfall that should not be missed. I would have liked to get right in the water to shoot this one, but four things prevented me: (a) the water was quite deep, (2) I was wearing jeans, (3) the water was flowing quite fast, and (4) the water was freezing cold. Oh yeah, just say it. I’m a wimp. Anyway, instead of doing that, I clambered down the bank as far as I humanly could and still be able to set up my tripod for a photo.