Leon Turnbull Photography

Episode 3? What happened to episodes 1-2? Well, it is like Star Wars when you see episodes 4-6 before 1-3. But were 4-6 better than 1-3? And what about 7? I will not get into that debate with you, but I will say this: I still remember the day in 1977 when we went to see Star Wars in the theater (I was 9 years old). Anyhow, in this case, episodes 3-4 *are* better than 1-2 and that is why I am posting them first. It also fits because this is my third attempt at hiking to these waterfalls on Rancheria Creek. Don’t you just love all the subtle nuances?

Today the big hike begins. The waterfall madman awakens from sleeping in the car at the campground. I got almost 11 hours of sleep the previous night. How sweet is that. I needed it, and I was in no big hurry to get started. I got up, made my breakfast, drank my coffee, and drove out to Hetch Hetchy to pick up my wilderness permit.

Five minutes into the hike, my belt buckle broke. I had not even gotten to the dam yet. I had Krazy glued it before I left, and I did not expect it to last through the entire backpacking trip, but five minutes??? It was still workable, but if the rest of it broke off, I would be in dear trouble. I prayed it would hold up for the trip. I guess I will need to buy a new backpack for next time, but they are kinda expensive, and I do like the one I have. I have had it since the year 1977 (or something).

The reservoir was not full, and yet they were releasing a lot of water from the dam. It made for a nice rainbow, but why are they letting out so much water? Are those SF’ers really that thirsty?

The flow in Wapama Falls was ok. It was pretty much the same flow as when I was here last year. This is exactly what I expected. I did not get wet at all crossing the bridge. (remember that statement)

Then I remembered something critical: I forgot my first aid kit back in the car. Doh! How stupid is that?? It is obviously much too far to go back to get it now. Would I need it? It is a long trip. Can I take a chance that I will not need it? What was in there that I am going to need? Well I swear that almost immediately after remembering this stupid mistake, my toe started hurting and I was starting to get a blister. Would you call that a psychological blister? I never get blisters in these hiking boots. And now I am on a long hike, and getting a blister on the first day, and nothing to treat it with? How am I going to manage this?

I finally arrived at Rancheria Falls. My wife pronounces it ranch-er-EE-a, but I have never heard it pronounced that before. I have only heard it pronounced ranch-EER-i-a. That must be correct, then. Sorry, Tara. There are two absolutely fantastic waterfalls here, and they are both much much more impressive in person than in photos. I was not expecting either of them to be as big and majestic as they are. Wow. There is also a third one as well (I will get to that later – in Episode 3.5).

Rancheria Falls is an extremely popular backpacking destination, and there is a large area for camping, and most of the sites are all shaded. There was no one else here when I arrived, and I had the place to myself. I was surprised at this. I picked out what I thought would be the best spot, but the problem is that there were mosquitoes everywhere here, and obviously they were going to be a lot worse in the evening. I had hoped that by going in early May, I would not have to deal with stupid mosquitoes. Apparently, they get a much earlier start in Yosemite than elsewhere, much to my chagrin. I dropped my bag and made a search for a better spot. I went to the top of the main falls. There were no camping sites up there. I went down to the bottom of the upper falls. Nothing there that did not have mosquitoes. I continued on down to the lower falls, going to the bottom of that waterfall. Still no good spots. Then finally back to the top of the lower falls, and there it was. It took about a full hour to find this spot, but I found it. It was breezy, there were no mosquitoes, it had a little bit of shade, access to water at the top of the falls, and it was secluded (not that it mattered with no one else around anyway). It was the perfect camping spot. I went back to retrieve my pack, and dragged it back down to my new spot, set up camp, relaxed for a bit, nursed my very painful toe with nothing to nurse it with, and watched as the thunderstorm clouds started rolling in. I was a bit exposed in this spot. There weren’t supposed to be any thunderstorms today, but it was nothing to worry about, the clouds hovered over the reservoir and stalled there. They did not look very menacing anyway (famous last words?)

Anyhow, around 4pm, I went over to the top of the falls to get some water to make my dinner, had a wonderful baked lasagna meal (well – freeze dried – is that wonderful?), and set off with my daypack back down to Tiltill Creek. Huh? Well there is a nice 40 ft. falls at the bridge over Tiltill Creek you know, and of course I wanted to get a good photo of it in good light. What I did not realize is that it is quite a walk from Tiltill Creek to Rancheria, and a big ascent. For some reason, I thought it would be much easier to get back and forth between the two. I had planned to shoot Tiltill, then the three waterfalls on Rancheria all on that same evening. But they are all much further apart then I thought. Tiltill Creek is not very easy to photograph. In fact, it is impossible to get a clear view of it. That seems to be the norm with all these waterfalls (except Lower Rancheria – pictured here). After Tiltill, I went cross country over to Rancheria Creek. I hiked up the mountain off-trail to get back to Lower Rancheria Falls. It was actually quite fun. Way over back on the trail, I noticed a large (noisy) group coming in to Rancheria for the night, the only other group that came this day to Rancheria. They went right to the spot I had initially chosen to camp (with the mosquitoes). I’m sure glad I did not setup camp there. I took many photos of Lower Rancheria. It is a fascinating waterfall with a 40 ft. drop then fanning out in an amazingly wide 60 ft. slide. I think it would make for an amazing water slide, and you might actually survive it, as long as you are certain you can get out of the water at the bottom of it, before you get to the big waterfalls below it (episode 3.5 spoiler alert). I’m not certain you actually could get out with the way Rancheria Creek was raging this day. When I got back to my campsite at the top of the falls, I went back over to the creek to my water spot, and I found it was completely flooded. The creek had risen this much in just a few hours. The next morning, it was flooded even more. I knew it would rise during the day with the warm weather, and I could not tell how much it had risen exactly, but it seemed a lot more than I would have thought, and it had me a bit concerned. But more on this in Episode 4. I fell asleep listening to the soothing roar of the creek.

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.