Leon Turnbull Photography

I went straight to the top of the middle falls after photographing lower King Creek Falls (previous post). Then I worked my way back down the creek, photographing along the way. I would love to return here at high flows. Perhaps some day I will.

Middle King Creek Falls is essentially one big 200 ft. high cascade. It consists of four separate sections with steeper and significant drops. All four of these sections would be fantastic at high flows. At low flow, I thought the lowest of these sections was the most intriguing (pictured here). It is about a 50 ft. drop and very pretty.

I got back to camp a little before dark, and got ready for bed. It was only 6:30PM. Too early to go to sleep, but I was very tired. Nonetheless, I did not sleep all that well, but not horrible either. On the plus side, it was not as cold as I anticipated it would be. When I drove to Mammoth Lakes the previous morning, it was extremely cold (below freezing). Since I would be camping at a much higher elevation, I anticipated it would be below freezing at night. The forecast said it would only be 37-40 degrees, however. Either way, I was prepared, but what would it be? I was expecting the worst. However, it was not that cold at all, maybe not even down to 40 degrees, but it was around that temperature. I was toasty warm in my sleeping bag all night long.

It was late in the year but perhaps I could get in one more quick backpacking trip before winter. How about going back to Ansel Adams Wilderness in the Eastern Sierra? Sounds like a good plan to me.

It was a very strange morning. I made a pit stop in Lee Vining for the bathroom. I had considered “holding it” until I got to Mammoth Lakes, but it turned out to be a darn good thing I stopped. I had already decided to fill up with gas in Mammoth because I knew it would be cheaper there (over $5 in Lee Vining!). Well, I got to Mammoth Lakes and drove into the gas station. It was closed. You could not even pay at the pump. I drove to the next one, same thing, and the next. What the heck? It is 8am on a Saturday in Mammoth Lakes, and nothing is open. What a strange town! As I drove back to the visitor center, I finally realized what was going on: The power was out in the entire town of Mammoth Lakes! It must be that new PG&E  policy of turning power off for wildfire prevention. It was not even windy!

Anyway, I began to wonder if I would even be able to get my backpacking permit since the power was out. Well, there were a few people in line, and a ranger was there doling out permits. Since they did not have power, they had to call in the permits to their headquarters. The problem: There was only cell service for those with Verizon. Apparently the ranger’s phone did not work, and my phone did not work, and neither did the lady in front of me have any cell service. Thankfully, the guy who came up behind me had service and let myself and the lady in front of me call in our permits. It was quite an adventure (and I have not even started hiking yet!) But I got my permit and I was on my way to Devils Postpile National Monument.

There were a lot of people on the trail, but as soon as I got off the main trail and onto the Fern Lake trail, I saw zero people. On the way up the mountain, I only saw some day hikers. I do not even know where they would be coming from for a day hike (what they told me made no sense – Bayshore?). It is a tough climb up to King Creek, gaining over 2000 ft. in elevation, and it took a lot longer to hike than it seemed it should. I was struggling with the high elevation as well, and I was very tired. This was strange because I was at the same elevation as last week, and I did not have any problems on that hike. My pack was also a lot lighter this time, since I was only going for one night.

I arrived at King Creek in the early afternoon, and looked about for a campsite. There was nothing on this side of the creek, so I decided to cross the creek. This was not difficult because the creek flow was low. I was hoping the flow would have been much higher because it is a big creek and we had a big snow year. It is late in the year, however, so I guess I should be happy it is flowing at all. I found a nice spot on the other side, and setup camp. I had cell service  (here, but not in Mammoth!), so I chatted with my wife via text and made dinner. After dinner, I made my way down to the lower falls. There are three waterfalls on this creek. I camped by the middle falls, and I would hike to the upper falls in the morning.

It was not very difficult to get down to the lower falls. In fact, I was ecstatic. It was easier than I thought it would be,  it was already in shade earlier than I thought it would be, and it was much much prettier than I thought it would be! I expected the lower falls to be more of a cascade, and with the low flow on the creek, the cascade would not be very interesting. However, it was not a cascade, but it was a drop dead gorgeous 70 ft. high double drop in a narrow canyon. It was absolutely stunning.

How many people have ever seen King Creek Falls or even knew it was here? I suspect some people have been here, I guess, but no one has ever documented this waterfall before. The waterfall madman, the king of the waterfalls, is the first to document beautiful King Creek Falls.

I woke. It was two hours before sunrise. The wind had picked up enormously. It was not shaking my tent much, but it still kept me awake for those two hours. At sunrise, I got up, I packed up camp, and ate my breakfast. It would be another fairly long hike to my next destination, Llewellyn Falls. I have not been to this falls before. It is one you could do as a day hike if you wanted, but it is way off the beaten path from civilization, and that is why I had not been out to it yet. Plus it is not particularly big. A long way to go for a small waterfall. But as I was in the area seeing Carson Falls, a second night spent at Llewellyn Falls was a good plan.

I left camp at about 8AM. I hiked through Bear Alley. I saw no bears. Bummer.

I hiked all the way back on the same trail to Silver King Creek … along the East Carson River, crossing the East Carson River, past Soda Springs Ranger station, up the massive 1000 ft. hill from the river, and back to the junction of the trail to Llewellyn Falls at Silver King Creek. Silver King Creek had more flow than the East Carson River. This is strange. I could rock hop across the river, but nothing doing at this creek. I had to wade across. The water was up to my shins, and it was FREEZING cold. The creek seemed more like spring than autumn. From there I still have 4 miles up the valley. It is an enormously long valley. It seemed to never end, and it took quite a long time to hike that 4 miles (it was probably more like 8 miles – well, it seemed like that anyway). It was also very flat. Surely no waterfalls could live here. Finally I arrived at the end of the flat never ending valley, turned the corner, and climbed up the short hill. I was now close to the waterfall. A trail sign indicated an off shoot path over to the waterfall. I sure hoped there would be a campsite there. I was even more concerned there would not be any here (more so than at Carson). No need to worry. There were a few nice ones at the top of the falls, and an easy way to get down to the creek for water.

In the evening, I went down to the waterfall. It is not particularly impressive, only about 25 ft. high and that is including the upper cascades. Still, it is nice to visit once. I had to cross the creek to photograph the waterfall, which was difficult because the creek was flowing rather swift below the falls. To see all the tiers, I had to climb up the cliff on the other side. This was not bad. Crossing the creek was much trickier.
So I made it to the two waterfalls that I wanted to in Carson Iceberg Wilderness. Success. I just had a short hike the next day back to the trailhead. Except …

DAY 3.

I was FROZEN solid in the night. Cue the song. Well, maybe I was not frozen solid, but my water shoes were certainly frozen solid. I was FREEZING solid. The temperature was surely 10 degrees colder than the first night. I screwed up. I only checked the weather forecast at Carson Falls beforehand. I figured Llewellyn would be about the same. It is slightly higher in elevation but only 10 miles away. It surely could not be more than a couple degrees colder. Wrong. I guessed it was around 35-37 degrees the second night, and I did not pack enough warm clothes because I figured it would not be that cold. The first night at Carson, I was toasty, but the second night at Llewellyn not so much. I had all my clothes on me and in my 17 degree bag, but I was still cold. If I had just checked the weather forecast properly, I am sure I would have brought more clothes and would have been very fine. In the morning I awoke at sunrise, got up and packed. It was tough to do this because of the temperature. I should have just stayed in my sleeping bag another hour or so but I could not sleep anymore anyway. Mostly it was just my hands that were so cold. I did not bring my gloves. Lesson learned. Once the sun came out though, I warmed up very quickly. It was a good hike back to my car, and a wonderful 3 days in the Carson Iceberg Wilderness.

It was my last backpacking trip of the season. I suppose that is not saying much because October 1 marks the start of the new season! The new waterfall season that is (the only season that matters). Indeed, we may have our first storm of the season next week. Anyhow, it will no doubt be awhile before my next backpacking trip. Winter is coming. The weather has been splendid the entire month of September (for backpacking), and this was my third trip of the month. This time around: Carson Iceberg Wilderness. I think I have hiked in this Wilderness before, but not backpacked. My goal: to reach mysterious Carson Falls. I have only seen a couple photos of this waterfall before, and they were not good ones. They made it seem like Carson Falls is pretty much un-viewable, and I would not have been surprised to find it that way. Instead, I found glory. But before that…

I arrived at the trailhead on the Eastern Sierra Nevada side, and was hiking by 8:45am. A tad late, but not bad. A sign at the trailhead indicated that bears in this area are habituated to humans, un-afraid, and eager to get your food by all possible means. That is not a good sign.

After climbing up 500 ft. to the top of a ridge, the views open up tremendously. The landscape is magnificent. The fall colors are already starting to shine (it is still very early in the Fall season, but they are already close to peak). The scenery is much different here than say, Ansel Adams Wilderness, but still astoundingly beautiful. The beautiful yellow and orange Aspens really upped the ante of the beauty. It was stunning, and I took a lot of video, which thus slowed my pace considerably, but I was not too concerned. Until…

Once I crossed Silver King Creek, the trail to Carson Falls heads off westwards. I did not see any trail westwards. According to my USGS map, it should be immediate after crossing the creek. Not so. I bushwhacked a bit, eventually getting back on the proper trail. I realized I should have continued up Silver King Creek a bit more to the marked trail junction, but how would I know that based on my map. From here, the trail goes all the way to the East Fork Carson River. Again, my map showed a trail down to Soda Springs Ranger station along the river, but there was no such trail. I continued on the main (obvious) trail, but this new route would add a lot of mileage to my trip that was not planned. Finally down at river level, I stopped at Poison Creek to filter some water. Thankfully, the water was clear and not poisonous – if it was poisonous, my Sawyer squeeze handled it nicely. Here, I met the only other backpacker I saw all weekend (except I did see some horseback riders the next day). He was an older guy, he was not very talkative, but he said he came from Wolf Creek and would be camping somewhere along the East Carson River. I think it is quite a trek coming from Wolf Creek, so he must be doing good, and he was a lot older than the geezer writing this blog.

After crossing the East Fork Carson River – which I rock hopped across – though it was a bit hard to do that – the trail was once again lost to my senses. Eventually, I found it again and continued up the river … until I lost it again … until I then found it again. As you may be able to tell, the trail is not all that well traveled. Not many people hike this section of the trail, I think especially from Soda Springs to Carson Falls. Once on the trail, it was easy to follow. It is just those few times where it was very indistinct or missing. In other words, this section took much longer to hike than anticipated. In addition to this…

There is a 2 mile section along the river here which we shall affectionately call “Bear Alley”. I saw more bear scat along the trail here than I have seen in my entire life combined. Maybe not quite. If not, then it is very close. I am not kidding. Every 20 paces, bear scat. Every 10 paces, more bear scat. The closer I got to Carson Falls, the more prevalent it became. Every 5 paces, more bear scat. Most of it was not fresh, but some of it certainly was. This was not made by one bear. A family of bears. Angry momma, and her five adorable children. Let’s not forget perturbed papa bear. And probably grumpy grandpa bear too. You would think that with all the bear scat, I would see some bears on this trip. No such luck. I was looking for them. I was hoping to see one, but I did not see any bears, or any other wildlife either. I think I saw an eagle, but it was too far away to be certain. Nothing else was seen (not counting birds and squirrels).

As I approached closer to Carson Falls, the trail once again disappeared. Actually, it just seemed to end very abruptly and succinctly. Now what? It was late in the day, too late to go back. There must be a way to get over to Carson Falls. I started to bushwhack over towards it. Nothing doing. After a long bit of searching, I finally did find the proper trail over to it. It was very easy to miss it (I did miss it!), and again, my map showed something very different than actuality.

I hoped that there would be a campsite close to Carson Falls with access to the river, but I was not certain. It seemed pretty cliffy in that area, but fortunately, I found a great spot a short distance above the falls, and yes, one and only one spot where I could get down to the river. No bear scat in the immediate vicinity of the campsite. Awesome. It was 3:30pm when I arrived. I had hoped to get here by 12:30pm, and then do another hike in the afternoon up to Golden Canyon. There was now no time for that. I was way too tired and it was way too late. I wisely just stayed at Carson Falls for the rest of the afternoon and evening.

After setting up camp and making dinner, I proceeded down to the waterfall. There was a steep path to the bottom, and I started down it, but quickly balked. This was way too steep and dangerous. With a rope, it possibly would have been do-able, but I had no rope. I did not think I’d be able to see much from the bottom anyway. Instead, I climbed up onto a large protruding cliff overlook. This was not “too dangerous” except for the big huge drop-offs, but it provided a glorious view of Carson Falls, and I could see all three magnificent tiers of the waterfall (mostly). I really really really enjoyed this waterfall. It is very beautiful. At higher flows, it would be even more spectacular, but in late September it was still glorious.

I was very tired from the previous day’s hiking, but I did not sleep. I have no idea why I could not sleep. I should have been plenty tired. It was not cold (indeed, I was 1000 ft. higher in elevation and it was warmer than the first night). Well, I got up at 4AM, packed up my gear, and started my hike. It was very dark. There was no moon. There were plenty of stars.

The first part of this hike, there is no trail. The route goes through the (dark) woods, and across a (dark) meadow. Perfect habitat for wild animals. The previous night I saw many deer in this area. Where there are deer, there are mountain lions. I also saw fresh bear scat. I whistled loudly as I walked through this area. When I hike (in the dark), I always whistle the “ru ku ku” song from SCTV. If you know what that is, you are awesome (it’s a Canadian thing). Once I got on the actual trail, it was a bit less nerve wracking, but it was still dark and ominous. Back down around Ediza Lake, some people had put up their tents right beside the trail (or right in the middle of the trail in one case), so I had to walk right through their camping area, hoping not to wake them and freak them out.

I arrived down at Shadow Creek Falls (pictured here) (40 ft.) at sunrise. I was right on time. It is a gorgeous waterfall, and Shadow Creek (as I said already) was flowing very strong for so late in the year. There were some people down here at the base of the falls eating breakfast. This is not a legal place to camp, and I’m not sure if they were camping here or just eating breakfast here as they had all their gear packed up already. They were friendly, considering as I was disturbing their breakfast to photograph the waterfall. I did not talk to them much, I was in a hurry to photograph the falls and get going to the next one. As it is, I barely made it down to Shadow Lake Falls, the last waterfall on my journey. I only had about 2 minutes to photograph it before the sun got on it.

Now finally I could relax. I ate my breakfast at the viewpoint to Shadow Lake Falls. I still had a very long hike ahead of me. It was another 7 miles back to my vehicle (12 total for the day). It was very tiring, and I was beat, even  thought it was mostly downhill, and once I got down to the river level it was not all that majestically scenic any longer (compared to what I had been hiking through). I think the previous day really wore me out, and I was extra tired from not getting any sleep. I tried to cut off 1 mile of the hike by hiking on the road for the last little bit, but that was a huge mistake. Hiking on the pavement was very hard on my feet, and I do not even think I saved a half mile of hiking, let alone 1 mile of hiking. I finally made it back to my car at 11:30am. I drove up to John’s Pizza Works in Mammoth Lakes for lunch, then made the long drive home. At least the highway was now open. I slept well in my bed that night. It was an awesome 3 days in the Ansel Adams Wilderness.