Waterfall hunting in Nevada. I have never been to this waterfall before because Reno “seems like” such a long way away. Actually it is only a 2 hour drive and all on the freeway. I thought about finally going here this weekend when I realized it would have Fall Colors and it would be flowing decent as well. It would have been much better to go early in the morning but I did not sleep well on Halloween night so we decided to go in the afternoon instead. “We” being myself and Journey of course.
This is a very busy trail. Much busier than the Galena Creek hike we did in Lake Tahoe. More people. More dogs. When I am sick and tired of seeing people before we even get to the waterfall then you know it is way too crowded. I am so glad that I can have Journey off leash when there is a lot of people. She is so perfect and follows right behind me or goes ahead of me past the people coming on the trail. When there are other dogs I do grab her collar or put her on leash and I had to do that a lot on this hike but I don’t need to do anything like that if there are no dogs. It makes me very happy.
It is a simple 3 mile hike (one way) to the waterfall with 1000 ft. elevation gain. It was a warm afternoon. There is a lot of Fall Color the entire way to the waterfall but no color right at the falls. There is some at the waterfall but it was long past done, unfortunately. The last section is extremely tricky. You need to cross the creek on logs which are quite high above the creek. We were following a lady and her little pipsqueak dog for this last part and her dog got right up on this narrow log with a big drop off and crossed the creek easily on it. Dang! It was incredible. No way Journey would be able to do that. The other option was a hodge podge of logs over the creek also with a big dropoff. They looked unstable and there were holes. You would not want to miss the log and put your foot through one of the holes, especially if you have little doggy legs. It seemed very sketchy. I looked around for another way but there was none. The creek was deep everywhere and would have been higher than Journey’s chest. There is no way she would have wanted to do that and indeed she would have balked and refused. Back to the hodge podge of logs. We need to try going this way. I got her up on the logs and she crossed carefully but easily. Awesome! I was very happy and proud that she did it. She is so good at stuff like this. My previous dog Kaya, no way Jose! She would have waded through the creek up to her chest.
I figured since it was late in the day there would not be any more people at the waterfall (except for the lady and her pipsqueak). Not so! There were still people here, including some kids smoking weed at the falls. I had to wait for them to leave before I could take photos. Then another big group came with a couple of dogs so I had to wait for them to leave as well. We sat on a log and ate our dinner while we waited. Finally everyone left. It was slightly tricky to get up to the base of the waterfall and we had to get our feet wet, but not nearly as difficult as the logs. We took our photos and enjoyed the waterfall before going back down.
Hunter Creek Falls is 27 ft. high. It is a lovely waterfall and was flowing quite decent. Obviously it has a defining log in the middle, another one of those that adds a lot of character to the waterfall. My wife thought it was very similar to Lion Slide Falls and she is right, except obviously this one is a lot thinner.
We hiked back down the mountain. We saw quite a few more people coming up the trail. All of them would be hiking back in the dark. I think that is what I should have done as well. Do the hike later in the day and hike back in the dark. There would have been a lot fewer people. I will not do this hike again because of the all people on this trail. You can be sure that our next hike (whatever it is) will not have anyone on the trail. It was a lovely Autumn afternoon in Mt. Rose Wilderness.
Journey and I went up to visit our old haunt, Horsetail Falls. We went there last year together. Heck, I go there every year.
With the government shutdown, I should not have to pay for parking. Who is going to come check your car? A furloughed ranger? I don’t think so. Yet when I arrived at the trailhead every other car in the parking lot had paid for parking. What the hey? Do they not know there is a shutdown? Now I wondered if I should pay. Should I pay or should I go? If I go there will be trouble. If I pay it will be double. Honestly I did not feel like paying for parking today. If there is going to be a stupid government shutdown then I should get some benefit out of it. That is my logic. I did not pay. (and I did not get a ticket).
If you have done this hike you know there is a little bit of scrambling on steep, slick, granite rock. Journey did very awesome on this. I thought she was going to slip and slide a couple times, but no. She is an expert at the rock scrambling now.
By the time we arrived at the waterfall we were the last ones on the mountain. We went to a couple different spots for photos. I had an idea for something a bit different that I wanted but it did not pan out so here is your Horsetail Falls shot for the year. It actually is a bit different from my previous photos. Journey ate her snack and we hiked down, arriving back at the car at sunset. It was a lovely evening in Eldorado National Forest.
There’s nothing you can do to shut me out when I’m speaking the truth. – Kutless
Tara, Journey and I drove all the way to Yosemite National Park to play fetch. Ha ha. Well, not exactly.
The real reason we went is because I thought Horsetail Falls might be flowing and I wanted a photo of it in October. Two inches of rain this week. Yosemite Falls was flowing decent (it was dry earlier this month). A foot of snow at the top which would be melting. I really thought Horsetail Falls would be flowing, at least a little bit. We arrived at the park in the early afternoon. Horsetail Falls was completely dry. Shut down. Darn. Well, there are other things to do in Yosemite, right? Such as play fetch!
Journey was antsy after the long car ride. She needed exercise in the most severe way. As I have said before she is a very high energy high maintenance dog. We love her to bits but she needs exercise every day. We stopped at the El Capitan picnic area and found an awesome spot for her out of the way from everyone else. We put her on the long rope and fetched. ONE AND A HALF HOURS. Pretty much non-stop. After an hour we tried to get her to stop and lay down for awhile but she was like: What are you doing? Throw that ball already!
Of course as you know, Yosemite National Park is in shutdown. I have read horror stories in the news recently as I am sure you have: base jumping off El Capitan, squatters, etc. Let me tell you what I saw there: I did not see anyone base jumping and we were there for the entire afternoon (I’m not saying it did not happen). The campground we passed was pretty full and I am sure some people (maybe a lot?) were there illegally. This did not bother me, though. If people were squatting illegally along the Merced River or some other such place, then that is different. I would have been mad about that because it is an environmental issue but if they are in the campground, who cares. There were quite a few people in the park overall but nothing out of the normal. The shuttle bus was running regularly. I saw one ranger making his rounds through the valley (a couple times). The bathrooms were clean and stocked with toilet paper. There was no overflowing garbage anywhere. Frankly, I was surprised. Very surprised. And very pleased.
Another thing I was surprised about was that the Fall Colors were already showing in the valley. Mid October is very early for color in Yosemite Valley. Indeed, I have a friend who was just there a few days before me and I asked him specifically if there was any color yet in the valley and he said none. Ugh! There was a lot of color! If I had known this then I would have come early in the morning at sunrise and spent more time in the valley photographing the colors. Ah well, c’est la vie.
At 3:30pm we went to see the Lower Yosemite Falls. This is one hike (walk) which Journey is allowed to go on. Tara is on crutches at the moment so we took it easy walking up to the falls but she made it. There were a lot of people there. All over the place, including up on the rocks near the waterfall. Even someone climbing up beside the waterfall (which I did not even notice until I got home and looked at my photos). There was no way to photograph the lower falls back at the viewpoint because of all the people so I had to scramble up on the rocks as well. Amazingly I found a pretty good spot with no one else in my viewpoint even though there were a ton of people all around me. After this, we drove all the way back around the valley again and stopped at Swinging Bridge to take this photo of Upper Yosemite Falls. We stopped at Bridalveil Falls viewpoint on the way back but I did not take photos there. Then the long drive home. It was a glorious afternoon in Yosemite National Park amidst the government shutdown.
Mom was out of town for the weekend so I had Journey. A big hike was certainly in the plans (actually, multiple hikes). I wanted to see some Fall Color this weekend but I definitely did not want to drive all the way to the Eastern Sierra. Maybe Lake Tahoe? But where? I read a couple reports that the hike to Galena Creek Falls had Fall Colors. What? I have done this hike before and never noticed any such thing. Well, perhaps I should go and see for myself once and for all.
We arrived at the trailhead Saturday afternoon. It was extremely cold! It was 39 degrees and there was a cold wind blowing. I was not expecting this at all. I did not have my toque or gloves. I did have my jacket and long pants, thankfully. I have a friend that absolutely refuses to wear long pants before November no matter what the weather is like. I am kind of like that but not so strict. If it is very cold I will wear long pants. It was very cold.
The trail is a very busy one. I was indeed expecting this and I figured I would have to have Journey on the leash for most of the hike, at least up to the waterfall. However, when we reached the sign that said dogs can now be off leash, I decided to let her go. She is very good about staying with me. She is also quite skittish of other people on the trail. Normally we do not hike in places where there are many other people (or any other people). At first, as we came up to someone she would say “daddy, you go first”. Later on, she got better about this and would go ahead but if the trail was narrow she would still want me to go first past the horrible people. (ha ha)
We arrived at the waterfall and it was in shade (due to overcast weather) so we stopped and I took my photos. Galena Creek Falls is 60 ft. high and it was still flowing fairly decent in mid October. There was ice around the falls which was also quite interesting. Did I mention it was cold?
There are no Fall Colors on the trail to the waterfall. I was not wrong in what I remembered about this hike. There are Fall Colors, however, if you continue past the waterfall. Initially I thought about going all the way to the Mt Rose summit but then figured I did not really want to do that. We could, however, continue past the waterfall and make a loop to extend our hike from 5 miles to 6.5 miles (total). That is what we did. Along the yellow brick road. There are not any Aspen here so the colors are not exactly super spectacular but nonetheless there was some very nice yellow. As we climbed up the mountain I was breathing with much more difficulty. The elevation was 9350 ft. and it was definitely getting to me. I saw no evidence of any tiredness in Journey as she rambled on ahead of me. Eventually we came back down to the waterfall where we ate our dinner. On the hike back down to the trailhead it started snowing! Just some small, light flakes, but it was snowing. It was also sunny directly overhead so what the heck was this nonsense? Ah, well there were some dark clouds over yonder and with a strong cold wind it was blowing the flakes into our path. We got back to the car at about sunset and drove home. It was a cold and beautiful afternoon in the Mt. Rose Wilderness.
My new tent arrived earlier than I expected. Before the weekend. This would be a perfect opportunity to give it a test run since I was not playing drums on Sunday. I wanted to take Journey along as well. New journeys with a new tent. The Eastern Sierra would be a great idea to see Fall Colors, however it was going to be 23 degrees at night. I could handle that but not Journey. That would be way too cold for her. Well I could go by myself or find a different place. Nearer to Lake Tahoe it was only going to be 37 degrees. Granite Chief Wilderness. This seemed perfect. Let’s go!
It is a very long drive to the trailhead. On a very windy road. Journey loves that. Not! Finally we got there at 11AM and were happy to get on the trail. It was a beautiful day. The first storm of the year just finished with about 2 inches of rain. Would all the creeks be up now? Not really but hopefully the waterfall would still be decent. It seems we are going to have a weak La Nina this winter which is a good sign, however we also have the Big Blob back which was very prevalent in the drought years. Are we going back into another extended drought or will we have a good winter? Pray for rain.
The hike to the waterfall is fairly easy, about 5 miles with minimal elevation gain. The first part is through an old growth forest. Huge trees. Redwood. Spruce. Douglas Fir. Absolutely incredibly beautiful through here. After crossing the Middle Fork American River (which was easily rock hoppable) the terrain changes in Picayune Valley. There are a lot of Aspen trees. Sadly they were all still green. I really wanted to see some Fall Color on this trip but I guess the elevation is too low and they have not changed yet. The trail was also a bit overgrown in places. It was not difficult but I was sad about that as well.
We arrived at the waterfall about 1:30PM and set up camp. It is very rocky and there was just one small spot to put the tent. I bought the Durston X Mid2. It takes some getting used to for setting up and taking down but so far I really like it. The camping area is quite large (and rocky, as I said) so Journey had a lot of room to explore while I was setting up the tent or doing other things.
Since it was an easy hike and still early I thought we would continue up the trail for awhile. I wanted to tire Journey out some more before bed. We hiked about 30 minutes up and 30 minutes back. I am not sure if that really tired her out more or not. Ah well. It was overcast when we got back to camp so we went straight to the waterfall to take photos. It was a bit difficult getting Journey up to the falls. There were some tricky spots including walking along a cliff edge, crossing the creek, and lifting her up over a big rock ledge. She did great though and we made it. Going back I found a much easier way for her.
Picayune Valley Falls is 41 ft. high. I thought it would be flowing a bit better, at least twice as much, but oh well. What can you do. It was still all right.
We got back to camp, made dinner, and went to bed. I had two coats for Journey but even so, she woke up at 4AM and was shivering. This was surprising to me. I took my sleeping bag liner (which was keeping me very cozy) and put it on over her. After this she stopped shivering and I think she was warm enough for the rest of the night.
We woke up, made breakfast, and hiked out, getting back to the car at 10:30AM. Then the very long drive home. It was a marvelous trip with Journey into the Granite Chief Wilderness.
