Leon Turnbull Photography

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.

Welcome folks to the waterfallswest.com blog. I figured I would try to start one of these blog things. Why? I don’t know. Just crazy I guess. My idea is to post photos from my hiking adventures, not just waterfalls. But there will be a lot of those for sure. I want to keep my stories light and funny, like my newsletter. And it will complement my newsletter, but this blog will be more frequent. Ideally, you’ll see a new posting every couple days. Can I keep that up? We shall see. So stay tuned for the adventures of … me.

For my first posting, I thought I would share this photo of Pauley Falls, in the town of Downieville. It is only 15 ft. high, but I was very pleased at how pretty it looks. But in the spring, this creek will be roaring.