Leon Turnbull Photography

Social media is lighting up this week (literally) with images of the FireFalls – aka Horsetail Falls – in Yosemite National Park. Rightly so, I suppose. It is an amazing natural phenomenon that only occurs for a short time every February, and not every year depending on weather conditions and water flow. This year, however, is a special year, all the conditions have been perfect for the FireFalls. But will you see a FireFalls photo from the Waterfall Madman? No! I say no again!

It is not that it is an uninteresting or crappy waterfall to see. Hardly. Two things I will say: Every single image of Horsetail Falls that I have seen (of the thousands that I have seen) is essentially exactly the same. Some are technically much better than others no doubt, depending on the skill of the photographer, but basically every image is the same. I’m not saying that is a bad thing, necessarily. Do you want your own token shot of Horsetail Falls? I would myself, except for one other thing: All the hundreds of photographers that go there every night in February to see it and photograph it. I hate crowds and I have literally no desire to go duel tripods with hundreds of others lining up at the exact same spot to photograph something in the fleeting moments of sunset. Even go take a look on my website of my photo of Bridalveil Falls from Tunnel View. If you look closely you will see it is indeed *not* at Tunnel View, it is at a different spot. That night, while hundreds of photographers were lined up at Tunnel View, I was at a different spot with one other photographer only. The viewpoint is only slightly different than Tunnel View, and I had a much more pleasant time than all those other photographers battling for a prime shooting spot (and no broken bones from fighting them).

So last weekend while all those hundreds of photographers were lined up at Yosemite for the FireFalls freak show, I was out exploring brand new waterfalls on a new creek, which I had all to myself, no other person within miles of me (literally), and the only living thing that came close to me was a river otter (and some birds, and some squirrels, and perhaps some other small microscopic creatures). I guarantee you I had a much better time that day than I would have had at Yosemite. So get out and explore. There is so much to see. If going with the crowds is your thing, then great, there is nothing wrong with that. But if you’re like me and prefer to be alone in the wilderness, then I say Yahoo, let’s go for it. There are so many awesome places to see in God’s creation, and this is just one of them:

http://waterfallswest.com/waterfall.php?id=moore-creek-falls-1942

The latest El Nino forecast has arrived and it continues to increase in strength. It hit the “strong” level in August for the first time. A key factor will be when it peaks. It not showing any sign of peaking yet, but is apparently forecast to max out in the December timeframe. If it peaks too early, it will not have the impact on our winter weather that we are hoping and praying for.

Despite what you may have heard from other forecasters, there have only been FOUR strong El Ninos since 1950. To clarify: four strong El Ninos “in the winter”; three of these had above average rain in California in the winter, and the fourth had “slightly above average” rain. Let me explain: The four strong El Ninos were: 1998, 1983, 1958, and 1973. As we all probably know, the first three had well above average precipitation for northern CA in the winter. No question about that. In 1973, however, I see about 103% of average precipitation for northern CA, noting that this strong El Nino peaked early in November (but still remained strong through the winter). Usually, forecasters referring to 1973 say it was an above average year for this strong El Nino, but I don’t think you can say 103% is “above average”, to me it is more “average”, but if you really want to then say “slightly above average”. The Southern Sierra may have been slightly higher that year.

There were two other strong El Ninos since 1950: 1966 and 1988. Both of these years had well below average winters for northern CA. However, it must be noted that both of these El Ninos were on the very low end of strong; the El Nino of 1988 peaked in the summer and was not strong when winter started; the El Nino of 1966 peaked in November/December and by January it was down to moderate strength. That is a very important distinction. Does it rain in the summer in California? No it doesn’t! So in the heart of winter, these strong El Ninos were not strong! Therefore, in my opinion, it is not appropriate to say El Nino was strong in those years if you are talking about predicting precipitation in the winter for California; they were moderate El Ninos during the winter of those years, not strong ones.

The other factor we have is the warm blob of water off the coast. In past strong events, this blob did not exist, and it also could be the reason we are currently in a four year drought. If it was not there, it is quite likely at least 2 of the 4 years we would have had average or above average precipitation. So will it affect the strong El Nino, and how? No one knows of course; personally I think it likely it will have some sort of negative effect, but the question is how much.

If we do have a big winter, I will be extremely excited of course. I was not living in California during the last big El Nino. I moved down here in 1999. I am already trying to map out where I will be hiking and what waterfalls I will be visiting this winter. Are you making your list yet? Pictured here is the Lower Middle Fork Tuolumne River Falls, 182 ft. high. Is this going to one of the waterfalls I will be visiting? Perhaps it will, though it is not specifically on my list (but nonetheless, I will be visiting this area for sure next year). If you have not seen it yet yourself, then you will certainly want to put it on your list. It is going to be amazing next year at high flows.

My annual pilgrimage to Yosemite this year was mostly disastrous. But all was not lost.

I had big plans. Starting with Friday evening after work, I left immediately for Yosemite. I arrived right on time for my evening hike except for one thing: the road was too rough to drive any further. I could have walked from there to the trailhead but it was still a couple miles away, and it was getting too late. I would have been walking back in the dark and that is not anything I desired. I salvaged that evening though by going to one of my favorite spots, the confluence of the south and middle forks of the Tuolumne River. It is an amazing area with three magnificent waterfalls side-by-side-by-side. I love this location but it is not one I had intended to go to this time. I consoled myself by getting some new and different compositions of these waterfalls. More to come on this later.

The rain started at 1 AM, and it rained pretty much nonstop all night and all through the next day. I was sleeping in my car so I was dry, but not warm. I don’t know what it is with me and sleeping bags and the cold. My wife insists I am from Mexico although really I am from Canada, so you *might* think that the cold would not bother me. I bought a new sleeping bag for this trip which is rated at 20°F. So that means, I would think, that if it is 20°F then I would be snug and warm in my sleeping bag. Not for me! The temperature got down to only 46° and I was still freezing cold. The next night it was about 36 degrees. I will leave it to you to imagine how I fared that night.

When I woke the next morning I knew it was going to be a rough day for hiking, and I was right. My anticipated hike was going to be a glorious one, but I knew I would not be able to make it in the rain. I did try … however the snow level was at about 4700 feet elevation, much lower than expected, and my hike was at 6700 feet. I had no chance of getting there. I tried another hike at around the 4700 foot level, and I hiked about 8 miles in the heavy falling snow, but I did not get to any waterfalls. It was just too tough in this weather and I got very soaked. I had a big backpack trip still planned and now I somehow had to get everything dry before the next morning. The rain was not letting up either.

I arrived at Hetch Hetchy in the afternoon. My idea was to hike to Wapama Falls in the evening, and then the next day do the same hike again except all the way to Rancheria Falls. The reason for going to Wapama Falls in the evening was to photograph the waterfall in good light. This falls is in the sun most of the day and getting good photos of it is very difficult if not impossible, considering that the park is not open until well after sunrise and closes well before sunset (that, by the way, is one of my big pet peeves). It is also especially difficult to photograph when there is so much mist and it is raining, but that’s another story. I was the last one off the trail and back at the campsite just before dark.

I survived the night. It was a close thing. I wanted to sleep in the next day, take it easy in the morning, and then casually make the hike out to Rancheria Falls. In the morning I packed up my gear and was just about to load the big weight upon my shoulders when someone came by and told me that the dam was closed. There was a rockslide. What?!?! Are you kidding me?? I went down to talk to the Ranger who told me the slide must have happened during the night and they did not know when the trail would be open again. She said it was a big slide … yeah right. It was so big it did not even make the news. I could be wrong, but I suspect that it was just a small slide, and indeed if I had started my hike early in the morning before the park opened I think I probably could have gotten past it without any problems. In fact, there was another backpacker in the camp who was doing the same thing as I was. When I woke up he was gone, and I think he got an early start and was able to get by the rock slide without issues. Although perhaps he is the one that caused the rockslide. Who knows. Anyway, there was nothing to do but go home. Clearly God did not want me to hike to Rancheria Falls that day, but why I do not know, because it would have been awesome. I thought about going somewhere else, but I was tired so I just decided to head back home and try again another year.  At least I was able to get my annual pilgrimage lunch at the Pizza Factory in Groveland.

This is the Lower Middle Fork Tuolumne River Falls. An incredibly stunning 182 ft. high waterfall (and before last year, was almost completely unknown). This image was taken back in the spring though I had not posted it before now.  It is located in a spectacularly beautiful area with three amazing waterfalls practically side by side. At least it was a spectacularly beautiful area. Is it still? Of course it is! Nevertheless, this area has been hit hard by the Rim Fire, one of the largest fires in the history of California. It will certainly be interesting to go back here after the fire is done, and see how the area has changed. It will undoubtedly be significant.

It seems that a lot of people are upset by this fire. So much more so than any other fire I remember. Yes this area will be different now. For better or worse I don’t know. Fire is a natural and necessary part of the ecosystem. Fire is not a bad thing, but yes there will be a lot of damage. The fire is much bigger than it should be, and there are many factors why. Nonetheless, the waterfalls will still be there. The lakes and rivers will still be there. It will still be beautiful. As for myself, I’m looking forward to going back to this area.

It was not one of my best days in Yosemite. Too much sun, non existent waterfalls, long hikes, blisters, no sleep. In fact, out of all the times I have been there I would have to rank it right near the bottom. But hey this is Yosemite, right? Even the bottom dwellers are good days at Yosemite. And so it was.

I left work early on Friday afternoon. Traffic was a nightmare. This can’t be good when it takes longer to drive to Yosemite than ever before. I wanted to try to hit three new waterfalls outside the park in the evening, so I couldn’t arrive too late or I would not have time. It is good that I left work earlier than I was initially planning to leave but I struck out big time on the waterfalls anyway. The first one was completely dry. Well, I was not expecting much from that one anyway. Move on. The second one, the one I really wanted to see, I could not get to. Access was all on private property. I tried to find a way around the private property, driving on rough dirt roads, getting my SUV all scratched up from the brush, but I could not find any way over to the waterfall. At least none that would not get me arrested. I tried the third waterfall. I found an old road leading up beside the creek, then I bushwhacked my way down to the creek when I got near the waterfall. There was an old old trail, overgrown, but at least it made things seem promising. When I got down to the creek, however, guess what? No waterfall. Nada. I was in the precise location that it was marked on the USGS topo maps, but nothing was there. Strike three. So what could I do? I drove back down the mountain to the great place I found last year, at the confluence of the south and middle forks of the Tuolumne River. I arrived there at sunset, barely enough time to take a few photos. It was enough to salvage the evening.

After very little sleep in my vehicle, I got up not so bright, way too early, and very coffee-less, to drive up Tioga Pass to Tuolumne Meadows. I did this big and very awesome hike down to Waterwheel Falls last year. This year, I was not going all the way down there again. I just wanted to take the very short hike down to the one waterfall I missed last year because I was too tired on that hike. It was just a short 6.5 mile hike. One way. Oh I forgot I have to hike back as well. That makes 13 miles. Maybe it’s not such a short hike, after all. But at least it’s not 19 miles or whatever the heck it was last year. Now according to my fine calculations, I had plenty of time to do this hike. I wanted to photograph Tuolumne Falls, White Cascade, and the new waterfall (Lower Glen Aulin Falls) in good light. White Cascade should be out of the sun until 9AM, and the new waterfall should be good until 10AM. Something did not seem right about that but my calculations must be right. I am never wrong. When I arrived down at Tuolumne Falls, it was still in shade, but just barely. I took my photo, then hurried down to White Cascade. It was already in the sun. How could this be? It was only 7:30AM. I trudged sulkily on down the trail for another mile thinking I should at least get to the new waterfall in good light with plenty of time to spare. Not so. It was already in full sun as well. It looked as though it would have been in sun shortly past sunrise as well, not even close to 10AM as I calculated. What went wrong? I am always usually spot on with my calculations. I do not know what I did, but the truth is I would not even have gone on this hike if I knew I had no chance of getting to this new waterfall in good light.

Well, it’s not like it is not a great hike though, and at least I got to one of the waterfalls in decent light. Last year I was here at the end of May, and so this year the river was flowing a bit stronger. Not a lot stronger. Just a little bit stronger. I was hoping the “rain” we had on Thursday would push the flow up quite a bit, as I would sure love to see these waterfalls flowing at full tilt, but it seems Yosemite got nothing from that system at all. Bummer. Well, there is always next year. I think it’ll have to be on a cloudy day next time though, so I can get some better photographs.

On the hike back up I saw quite a few people coming down the trail, including one group of backpackers that lost a couple in their party. They ran back up the trails looking for the couple, but to no avail. They were good and lost. I am really not sure how you could get so lost on this trail. There are signs at all the trail junctions, and it is pretty clear which way to go (ie. just follow the river downstream – and don’t go IN the river). They asked me to keep a lookout for the couple, but I saw no one on my way back. All I saw were deer. No bears, no coyotes. I do hope they found them eventually. I got my blistered feet and sunburned face (did I mention that I forgot my hat) back to the car around 1PM, ate my lunch, and 3 bananas (which my wife told me would prevent me from getting cramps – and it worked – thanks hun!), then made the long slow drive back home. Fell into bed at 7PM and slept right through to morning, which is a good thing because I had to get up for the early church service to play drums. It was a very good day in Yosemite. But I need to go back again.