Leon Turnbull Photography

Whirlwind weekend part I. Yosemite Valley.

My plan was ambitious. There are (or were) four different places I want to get to this spring, all of which require multiple days of travel or hiking. I was hoping to get to two out of the four on this one weekend. Two birds killed with one stone. First up was Yosemite Valley. With the huge snow pack melting I knew the waterfalls in Yosemite would be huge. Tremendous. Incredible. Amazing. Gargantuan. You name it. I absolutely needed to get back to my favorite park this spring.

So right after work on Friday I drove down south. The traffic was awful just getting out of Sacramento even though I left very early. I did not have much time to spend in the valley but I wanted to definitely get some Quality Time with Yosemite Falls, one of my favorite waterfalls on Earth and to be in the park for sunset.

I finally arrived in the valley around 6:30pm and went straight to the lower falls. All the waterfalls in the park were flowing tremendously. I even saw some dropping off cliffs that I had never seen before. These ones are not even named. I wish I had more time in the valley but that was not to be for this trip. Even with the tremendous flow they say the falls have not reached peak flow yet. Hard to believe any more water could be coming off Yosemite Falls. The creeks and Merced River were already quite full. Too much more and there will certainly be flooding in the valley.

I went up to my favorite place to view the falls, away from the viewing area where everyone else stops. I think more people know about this  “semi secret” place now as the path seems more traveled but I had the waterfall to myself this evening, just the way I like it. I found a spot where I could see the upper falls as well as the lower falls and stayed there for as long as I possibly could bear. I was getting completely drenched from the spray. To me, this is the ONLY way to truly experience Yosemite Falls. Finally, like a wet dog, I went back down the trail, getting strange looks from people wondering if I went swimming in Yosemite Creek, and found this viewing area back away from the falls and spray, where I could take a photo of this magnificent waterfall. I was looking for a different view of the falls than the normal ones, hoping to find a spot with Yosemite Creek in the foreground. I found this one.

More to come.

I have been curious lately about what would be considered the “most photographed” waterfalls in California.  Obviously, Yosemite Falls would certainly be number one (and it was, by a very long shot). But I have heard people say McWay Falls and Eagle Falls are right up there in the number two or three position. Well, I decided to try to determine this. But how could one possibly find this out?

Well, here is my highly unscientific method. I browsed through the search listings on Flickr, which is the top photographer’s posting site on the web. The listings on Flickr should give (in my mind) an average estimation of reality. So with a bit of work, I came up with a very rough idea about the order. There were a few surprises. I thought Bridalveil would be number two, and I did think McWay and Eagle would be further up the list then they were. Alamere Falls was definitely a huge surprise.

So without further ado, here are the top 10 photographed waterfalls in all of California:

1. Yosemite Falls

2. Vernal Falls

3. Bridalveil Falls

4. Nevada Falls

5. Burney Falls

6. Alamere Falls

7. McWay Falls

8. Eagle Falls

9. Horsetail Falls (Yosemite)

10. Feather Falls