Leon Turnbull Photography

Normally, the only day of the week I can get out hiking is on Saturdays. My wife, Tara, has a Kenpo Karate school in Sacramento, and teaches 3 nights of the week, while I stay home with the kids. So kind as she is, she lets me get out on Saturdays to do my thing. But this weekend, she had an all day karate seminar in Fresno. Not to be out done though, I had a new plan: go for a quick hike on Friday after work before dark.

I had heard there was a waterfall in Sly Park at Jenkinson Lake in Pollock Pines. The trouble was, I did not know exactly where it was. One source said it was on Sly Park Creek. In Danielssons’ Northern CA Waterfalls book, he said it was on Camp Creek. That made no sense, Camp Creek was on the other side of the reservoir. He has so many mistakes in his book, it is not even funny; but that is a post for another time. My best guess was it was on Hazel Creek. But I was wrong (surprise, surprise). And as it turned out, Danielsson was actually right for once (surprise, surprise). The waterfall is a man-made waterfall created from a diversion tunnel on Camp Creek, which flows all the way across to Sly Park Creek, dropping off a 33 ft. high cliff into Sly Park Creek. Even though it is man-made, it is a pretty waterfall, dropping into a nice little pool.

The trail begins at Hazel Creek campground and follows the reservoir over to Sly Park Creek. However, I had to walk a little further than expected. The road was closed a mile before Hazel Creek camp, and thus, a 2 mile round-trip hike turned into a 4 mile hike. It was already getting late by the time I started, so I was worried I wouldn’t make it before dark. I decided to continue. I made it rather easily to the waterfall. However, I did have quite a bit of snow to hike through. Again, I had no snowshoes with me. No matter, I didn’t need them. Even though it was getting quite late, I came across a jogger. I had seen no other cars around, so I figured he must have been jogging completely around the reservoir (that is quite a distance). When I reached the waterfall, there was one short descent down to its base. In the summer, no problem. In the winter, it was sheer ice. I decided to go for it, sat down on my bum, and went for a ride. Whee! Climbing back up the ice was a bit more difficult. I managed to do it, without killing myself or breaking anything important (ie. my camera equipment). By the time I got back to my car, I was hiking in the dark. All in all, it was a fun hike on a Friday evening, after work. And I wasn’t finished yet …

What better waterfall photo to post on Valentine’s Day than Love’s Falls? I was up here in Sierra City a few weeks ago, and hiked a half mile through the snow to reach the falls. I had snowshoes with me, but in my great wisdom, I decided to leave them in the car and hike on foot. The snow was hard enough, but snowshoes probably would have made things a bit easier. I sank through a few times on the hike. It is a bit difficult to see with all the snow on it, but if you look closely, you can see that the big rock to the left is heart shaped. Pretty neat. I wouldn’t have known that had a friend not pointed it out to me. I was snow-blind, I guess. I used to think this waterfall was named after someone whose name was “Love”. I really have no idea where I got that. A drug-induced hallucination perhaps. No, actually I thought I had read it somewhere, but I have no clue where. What the culprit could have been is that darn apostrophe in the name: “Love’s”. That is what probably made me initially think it was named after someone. Why would there be an apostrophe otherwise? Indeed, I have seen this waterfall spelled before without an apostrophe. Anyway, I now believe the name actually comes from the heart shaped rock. Makes more sense, no?

I had this great plan after shooting sunrise at Fallen Leaf Lake. Hike/snowshoe to Glen Alpine Falls, which is just at the other far end of the lake. I wanted to do some snowshoeing this weekend, and I thought this would be a good location for that. I figured Glen Alpine Falls would be a nice waterfall to see in the winter. Not exactly. It was completely covered in snow! I definitely wasn’t expecting that. I knew there would be lots of snow, but it did not dawn on me it would be all covered up. You’re probably thinking I was being very naive about that, considering that we have had an average to above average snow fall so far this year. And you may be right too. Nonetheless, I was definitely bummed.

It’s quite a bit more difficult to get to Glen Alpine Falls in the winter. Fallen Leaf Lake Road is gated about 2 miles from the highway and you have to walk in. But it is still plowed, and people live here during the winter. I don’t get why they gate the road in the winter. Anyway, that means I had to walk about 3 miles along the road to the end of the lake. It is not hard hiking, but it is not what I was expecting. I knew the road would be closed, but I didn’t know it was plowed. So I was expecting I would need my snowshoes. I did get to use my snowshoes a bit, because I hiked another mile above the lower falls to get to Upper Glen Alpine Falls. It also, was completely snowed over. C’est la vie.

After hiking 8 miles, there and back, I was pretty darn beat. My back was hurting me from the heavy pack I was carrying. All that camera equipment is not light, you know. Plus I was carrying my snowshoes for most of that 8 miles. Whew! I didn’t see anyone else walking on the road except for one jogger and her dogs, which tried to bite my legs off. Well, not really. They were friendly dogs. But they scared the crap out of me, when they came running up to me barking loudly. After I got back to the car though, all of a sudden there were tons of people out and about, it seemed. Hikers, snowshoers, kids playing in the snow. Everyone seemed to be out enjoying the especially sunny day. It was a traffic jam (literally) on Fallen Leaf Lake Road.

So have you ever skipped a rock across a frozen lake? It’s actually quite fun. I know, such little things amuse me so much. But as I was waiting for the sun to show its’ face this morning, I tried doing this. The rocks go incredible far on the ice, and make a very strange noise. Okay, I know I’m weird. But I bet you’ll be trying it next time you have a chance.

I got to Fallen Leaf Lake a bit early. In the winter, the campground is closed. You have to walk in from the road over the snow. But it is a popular location in the winter as well, and there are plenty of tracks through the snow. But no one is there at sunrise. They all came later, after the sun was well up above the horizon. That suits me just perfectly.

I headed up to Lake Tahoe this morning for a sunrise shoot and hike. In order to be there by sunrise, that means I need to wake up at the lovely hour of 4:30AM. No wonder my wife thinks I’m crazy. But it’s worse in the summer; I’d have to be up at about 3:30AM. My destination: Fallen Leaf Lake. I was here
last winter for a sunrise shoot as well. The lake was completely frozen then. Today, it was just barely frozen. No walking on water today. It has been fairly warm during the day lately, so maybe that’s why. But anyway, it was enough to get some interesting shots of the lake and the first light on Mt. Tallac.

I love coming to Fallen Leaf Lake for sunrise. It is so peaceful. No one else is ever there. Not like at some certain other locations we all know about, such as Yosemite, where you’re battling tripods with 20 other photographers, and whoever has the strongest tripod gets the best location. Of course, there’s a reason those other locations always have so many photographers. The scenery there demands to be photographed. El Capitan says “look at me, take a photo of me” But Half Dome says, “No, look at the fabulous light on my face, photograph me”. But nonetheless, I (usually) prefer these not so photographed locations, that are also incredibly beautiful. Mt. Tallac and Fallen Leaf Lake fits the bill for me.