Leon Turnbull Photography

I did not sleep well. It was about 27 degrees which is the coldest I have ever backpacked but I was not cold in my tent and I did not even need all my layers. I had two sleeping bags. I wore my long underwear and three tops. Nonetheless I only got about 4 hours of sleep and I am not sure why. It was quite a bit windy all night long but I don’t really think that was the main reason.

Anyhow I woke up early, packed everything up and then hiked up to Bunnell Cascade. It is only about a mile further up the canyon. The snow was hard packed and I did not even need snow shoes. I made it to the falls in short order. It was quite a bit colder up there so I was all bundled up (or bunnelled up?) in my warm clothes while I took my photos. It also seemed that there were better camping spots (remember that for next time).

I like Bunnell Cascade a lot more than Merced River Falls. Even though it is slightly smaller (53 ft.) it is much prettier. I took my time, took many photos, had my breakfast, then scooted back down to collect my gear back at Merced River Falls. It was 9AM when I started back down the trail for home.

From Nevada Falls down to the bottom it took 2 hours and 15 minutes (compared to 4 hours hiking up!). As I already mentioned there were a ton of people and many had improper footwear. Considering the horrible icy conditions I was very surprised there were so many people. It was like a typical summer day on this trail! I made it back to my car by 2PM, very tired and very sore. I was home by 5:30PM. It was a fantastic winter trip to Yosemite National Park.

January was a bust. I think we basically received zero precipitation in the entire month. As of Feb 1, the snow pack is at 100% of normal (northern CA), 98% (central Sierra), 100% (southern Sierra). Rain is at 117% (north), 103% (central), 95% (south). That may seem ok but all the bonus accumulation we received in December is now all gone and February is starting off as dismally as January. I just pray we get a lot more in the next couple months.

In the last few years I have tried to go on one winter backpacking trip each year. Most waterfalls do not flow in winter but this year right from the start I had my eye on Yosemite National Park. To be specific: Bunnell Cascade and Merced River Falls on the Merced River. These would definitely be flowing and the hike should be do-able in the winter. I have been to them a couple times before but I did not have any good photos of them. It is a long hike from Yosemite Valley.

I was planning to go a couple weeks prior but unfortunately the COVID bug hit our household. I did not get very sick but the rest of my family did. Essentially all I got was a cold for a couple days (just a stuffy nose). I am 100% sure I did not get very sick because I had the booster shot (whereas the rest of my family did not have it). My wife does not agree with me but that is what I believe. Anyhow the first weekend I did not hike because I thought I might get sick (I did not). The second weekend I had the cold so I did not feel like hiking. By the third weekend we were all recovered and I was going hiking. No matter what. Yosemite here I come.

According to the Yosemite National Park website if you are backpacking from Happy Isles in winter you must get your permit from the visitor center in person. They don’t open until 9AM. So … I planned to be there by exactly 9AM. I needed to get as early a start as possible as it is a long hike and there is not much daylight in winter. When they opened at 9AM the ranger told me it is all self permit issuance in winter (even from Happy Isles). Ugh. I could have arrived earlier and started hiking much earlier. Oh well.

I was on the trail by 9:30AM. Of course the Mist Trail is closed in winter due to icy conditions but even the winter route is fairly treacherous. There is a lot of ice on the trail. Without spikes or crampons it is extremely dangerous. I had figured that since a lot of people would be hiking this trail every day it could not possibly be so bad. Wrong. Fortunately I did bring my spikes and it is not hard or dangerous at all if you have the proper footwear. However, I was following a couple other people up the trail who did not have any spikes. They wisely turned back when we got to the first bad icy section but the next day coming back down I could not believe it. It was a Saturday and there were a ton of people coming up the trail and many of them did not have proper footwear (and they were NOT turning back). The conditions were even worse on Saturday than Friday (a lot more icy). All these people who went up the icy sections did not even think to wonder how they were going to get back down later? (frankly I wonder how they even got up these sections in the first place – but going back down is 100 times worse). I would be surprised if not one of these people broke a bone (or worse) coming back down the trail. People really need to use their brains more. Is it really worth the risk going on this hike in winter without proper gear?

It took me FOUR hours to get to the top of Nevada Falls. It has never taken me that long before. I figured there were a couple reasons: 1. I had a very heavy pack carrying all my winter gear, including extra clothes, spikes, snowshoes, etc. (it was about 38 pounds). 2. I had not hiked at all in a couple weeks because of the COVID thing and not much more since Christmas so I was quite a bit out of shape. I was completely spent by the time I got up there and I was not even close to being done yet. I still had 4 or 5 miles to hike from the top of Nevada Falls. At least it is flat from there.

Flat does not mean easy. I had to break out the snowshoes before I even got to Little Yosemite Valley. Not a lot of people had been up this way past Nevada Falls. (which I thought was surprising). Once I got past Little Yosemite Valley there was no one at all. I was breaking the path. It was so incredibly beautiful walking up the valley in the late afternoon and being the only one who has been up there this winter. But it was also very tiring.

It was 4PM when I finally reached the first waterfall: Merced River Falls (58 ft. high). With only one hour until sunset and also the fact that I was so incredibly tired I decided to camp here instead of going on to Bunnell Cascade as originally planned. I setup camp, took my photos of Merced River Falls, made my dinner, and then went to bed. Could I get to Bunnell Cascade in the morning?

So with the national forests in California all closed there is not much hiking to be done. A lot of people are happy about this, saying resources are limited, don’t want any new fires, etc. Here is the problem: backpackers do not start fires. Hikers do not start fires. Only idiots start fires. And arsonists. (both of which we have in California right now). Closing the national forests only punishes the responsible people. On the Labor Day weekend with all the forests closed, there were four new fires started in California, at least one of which was on (closed) national forest land. None were big, thankfully, but the Bridge Fire would have been devastating if it had taken off. Clearly, closing the national forests did nothing to stop new fires from starting (just as I predicted).

Yosemite National Park is open. Yay! No fires there. No bad air quality there. That means I could do a quick backpacking trip there on the weekend, if I could figure out a place to go. I had an idea: Illilouette Creek. I knew Illilouette Falls was flowing somewhat decent and I hoped to find a couple new waterfalls as well. When I arrived to pick up my permit the ranger said that the upper section of the creek was completely dry. I was very surprised to hear this but she had been up there herself recently so I had no reason to doubt her words. Thus there was no point in hiking to the upper falls as planned but the other one was on a different branch and she said it was flowing. Would the falls be decent? My new modified plan was to hike up to this waterfall and camp there. But …

It was 10AM when I started my hike at Glacier Point. My pack weight was just 30 pounds including all my camera gear. This is the lightest I have ever had it and honestly I see no possible way I could go any lighter than this. I used every item I was carrying. There were (obviously) hundreds of people at Glacier Point but once I got on the trail I saw no one at all the entire day. It is a funny thing in Yosemite. You can hike on, say, the Vernal/Nevada Falls trail and literally pass 1000 people on the trail. But hike on, say, the Illilouette Creek trail and see zero people. It is not a horrible trail either. (no trail in Yosemite is horrible). I had plenty of great views of Half Dome and also Liberty Cap and Vernal/Nevada Falls as well. Vernal Falls looked pretty bleak and I did not even recognize it at first. What is that waterfall down there? I have never seen it before. Oh, it is Vernal Falls. Doh! Illilouette Creek, however, did have some water in it. Since the other branch was dry I figured most of it would be from the Clark Fork. This was not the case. I arrived at Clark Fork Falls and it was pretty lame. Very lame. It was not worth taking a photo and it was not worth staying here to camp. I was bummed. I really wanted to get at least one new waterfall on this trip. Well, all was not lost. I could still see the big one the next morning (Illilouette Falls). I decided to hike back to Illilouette Creek and camp there. In the morning I would have a short hike up to Illilouette Falls.

I found a nice little spot by Illilouette Creek. It seemed like a perfect place to see a bear or mountain lion. I did not see any of those but a family of grouse came waltzing through my campsite in the evening. I saw more grouse when I got back to Glacier Point the next day but those ones were people friendly and let me walk right up to them with no worries at all. (within a couple feet). I also heard coyotes howling in the middle of the night. I don’t think I’ve ever heard that before. I heard owls hooting in the night as well. (I have heard that before).

The next morning I got up in the dark and hiked up to Illilouette Falls. Obviously it is much better in the spring but nonetheless I thought it was lovely. A 379 ft. high beauty. Some waterfalls still look nice at low flows and Illilouette is one of them. (I was hoping Clark Fork would be in the same category but nope). I enjoyed my breakfast at the falls then hiked up to my car getting back to Glacier Point at 9:30am. I was home by 1PM. It was a quick but lovely trip to Yosemite National Park.

This photo is what I am calling Middle Falls Creek Falls, at the inlet to Lake Vernon.

I got up very early. I did not want to be hiking in the heat of the afternoon so I packed up, ate my breakfast and hit the trail. After a short 500 ft. climb, it is all downhill (3100 ft. down). I felt like I was almost running down the hill (I was walking very fast), but I was not making good progress. I wanted to be back at the car before 11am, but I was not going to make it by that time. This is dumb. I slowed down for the last section down to Hetch Hetchy Reservoir. It was hot now. Once I got down to the reservoir there were loads of people on the trail, all hiking to Wapama Falls. I saw a rattlesnake along here and a huge lizard. I don’t know what kind of lizard it was, but it was not one I’ve seen before. I tried to look up the species later but I could not figure it out. I made it to the car at 11:30AM. That’s not “too bad”, I guess.

I stopped at Pizza Factory in Groveland for a late lunch (the real reason why I wanted to be down the hill earlier). It is the first time since COVID started that I have gone out to eat in a restaurant after one of my hikes. There are a variety of reasons, some obvious, some not, but one of them being that certain towns (especially South Lake Tahoe and Mammoth Lakes) were telling people to stay away from their trails. Really, I am not allowed to hike on the “public” trails in your town and you don’t want me to spend money in your primarily tourist town? Then I won’t. Even after COVID is over. (spend money, that is – you are not stopping me from hiking in your town). I can’t imagine the restaurant owners approved of what their city leaders were saying. Anyway, before COVID I would occasionally go out to eat, especially after backpacking (not always). However, whenever I was in Yosemite, I ALWAYS stopped at Pizza Factory afterwards. I felt it was time to do this again. My reward after a long hard trek. Sweet.

At 3PM I started my second hike of the day, this time going to the inlet of Lake Vernon. There is a trail on that side of the lake which goes (almost) all the way to the inlet. The last little bit is slightly brushy but I did not find it too difficult to reach the inlet. There is a waterfall here but this is not the main one I wanted to see. For that, I had to climb up the canyon.

I was not sure if this was even going to be possible or not. Would it be too dangerous? If the granite was too slick and steep, I would be sliding off into the roaring creek, and be dead. From my study of Google Earth the route looked quite do-able, but there were a couple sections I was just not sure about. I began the climb.

It was very easy! The granite was not too steep and it was very open and easy going and a very beautiful hike. I was going to make it. Wait, not so fast madman. Guess what, I did not make it.

I was so close. I could partially see the big waterfall. I could not get to it. There was a WALL of manzanita brush in front of me. It was thick as molasses. It was not far but there was absolutely no possible way to get through the stuff. Believe me, I tried. I tried to go up and around it. Nope. I tried to go through it at the bottom. Nope. I had to give it up. This is horrible. I came all the way up here and was almost to the waterfall but I could not make it. It was so disappointing. What could I do? I sat down and ate my dinner. This gave me time to think. Maybe there is another way. I could not miss out on seeing this huge waterfall. There is a side channel going up beside the main branch of Falls Creek. There was water flowing down this drainage. It is overflow from the main creek. Maybe, just maybe, if I could get to it (through the brush), then maybe, just maybe, I could climb up the creek to the top it. I decided to give it a go. What did I have to lose? My life? The brushy part was short and I walked through it along the edge of the cliff. It was not quite as thick right along the cliff. It probably did not want to live right on death’s door. I made it through the brush. After that, I was able to get down to the creek at the bottom. Now I had to climb up the side channel. This is one of the stupider things I have done recently. The rocks were wet and slick. I had to crawl through a narrow slot in the rocks. A couple times I had to put my feet right in the water to climb up the cascade. How would I ever get down? But I did it! I made it to the top and I made it to the bottom of the huge waterfall. If there was any more water in the creek, I could not have done this. At very high flows it certainly would have been impossible (when I was here the Tuolumne River was flowing at about 1200 cfs – this is somewhat high, but it usually gets a lot higher in a normal year).

Has anyone ever been to this waterfall before? It seems unlikely. There is a trail at the top of it but I could see no possible way to get down from the top. It looked very cliffy. The other side of the creek looked better (no brush), but I don’t see how you could get to it without having to cross Falls Creek. Perhaps at low flow Falls Creek would be crossable and then it could be done but the way I did it seems very unlikely anyone has ever gone this way. That brush is insurmountable, and at higher flows, crawling up the side channel would be impossible for sure. Maybe someone has made it up here at lower flows. Perhaps.

Falls Creek Falls is a huge cascade, about 400 ft. high in total. I was standing right near the bottom of the main section of the falls. It was enormous and magnificent. I was so happy! I did not believe I had actually done it. Now I had to wait about 30 minutes for the sun to go behind the ridge, then I took my photos and went back down. Going down that creek drainage was easier than going up (it seemed), but I was very careful. I hiked back down all the way to the bottom and took photos of the lower falls. Then I hurried back the trail to my camp, arriving just before dark. I noticed a couple more backpacking groups had come up today, but they were all camped on the north side. So again, I had the entire south side to myself. Why was everyone camped on the north side of the lake? The camping is far better on the south side of the lake, it is a lot more brushy and a lot more buggy on the north side. Anyway, I had an absolutely fantastic day and saw all the waterfalls I wanted to see. I went to sleep a very happy boy.