Leon Turnbull Photography

The biggest storm of the season gave us anywhere from four to eight (or more) feet of snow in the Tahoe area. It is a bit early to tell but I would guess that this one storm raised our snow pack from 30 to 60 percent of normal for the year. We could really use at least one more big storm like this.

Oroville picked up about six inches of rain this week and it seemed to me that the waterfalls on Table Mountain would be flowing beautifully. So this is where I headed on Saturday morning.

By Saturday morning the rain had stopped and it was actually supposed to be sunny. That was not really good as I was hoping for overcast skies. I had planned a big nine mile hike to see many waterfalls. If it was sunny I would only get to one or two before the sun was up too high to photograph.

I actually saw quite a bit of wildlife on this hike. A coyote in the city, which was quite strange. A jack rabbit, while I was hiking to the falls in the dark.  I spooked a deer along the cliffs at Beatson Falls and as it bounded away from me I was just hoping it would not lose its footing and plunge off the cliff. Later I scared a hawk which was very close to me below the top of a cliff. And last but certainly not least I saw the rare but dreaded and ferocious bovine creature.

Yes there were plenty of cows I passed by as I hiked up to Beatson in the dark. Not unusual of course but there were quite a lot more of them this time. And they were mad at me because I woke them up! They were honking at me (as only cows can do) constantly as I passed them by. Have I mentioned before that I hate cows? I mean … I like to eat them. But that is about the only thing I like about them. As I approached the crossing of Beatson Creek I realized why there were so many more of them. There was a new corral structure there and they were all hanging out in that general area. Fortunately I was able to find an area free of cows where I could cross the creek. A lot more water in the creek this time and I could not just rock hop across, I had to take off my boots and wade.

It took a bit longer to get to Beatson Falls than I expected and I was late for sunrise. It was good that the sunrise was not colorful cuz I would have missed it. One of these days I’ll get a killer sunrise shot from this location. If the cows let me, of course.

Beatson Falls was flowing very well as I expected but some of the other lesser falls on Table Mountain were not flowing too well and I was a bit disappointed. They probably need another six inches of rain. Maybe next week.

As I biked down Fallen Leaf Lake Road I came upon this scene as the almost full moon was setting behind Mt. Tallac with a stellar reflection in the lake. Well, it was not a waterfall so I did not stop. Yeah, right. I could not not stop and take a shot of this glorious scene. The little bit of clouds coloring just prior to sunrise also added to the beautiful scene.

This was a semi half planned shot, actually. I knew the moon would be setting behind the mountains at sunrise, and I was thinking of shooting it as I hiked up to Glen Alpine Falls, but I was thinking of shooting from a different location, not behind Tallac. The scene at Tallac did not occur to me beforehand, though it should have because it is a much more magnificent scene then the one I had in mind. Well, it was a gorgeous morning indeed.

Well it has been awhile, but I am just now back from a vacation. We drove up to Canada to visit my family and celebrate my parents’ 50th wedding anniversary. As I write this, I am sore, tired, and sick. I did not see as many waterfalls as I would have liked, and I did not take as many photos as I would have liked, but it was not for lack of trying. More to come on this later.

On the drive up, I was hoping to get a good sunrise shot of Mt. Shasta. In order to accomplish such a feat, I got up at 2AM and drove up from Folsom. I picked my family up in Red Bluff (at my wife’s parents’ house) at around 5AM (she was not all that pleased about the time). We arrived in the Mt. Shasta area and it looked to be rainy and overcast, and the mountain was not visible, so we kept on driving. North of Weed, we came to a vista point at sunrise time. The clouds were clearing up, and it was a cold, but pleasant sunrise. Though the color was not very interesting as I had hoped, we did get some nice alpenglow on the mountain. It was a good start to our trip.

We spent the last few days in the small town of Arnold CA . My mother and my sister and her family were down visiting us from Canada, and they were staying in Arnold for a few days (for some reason or other), and so our family went down to visit them there. It was nice to see them as we don’t usually get to see them more than once a year.The four cousins had a very fun time playing with each other, and of course, Jadon and Nekoda were very happy to see their grandma as well.

It was cold in Arnold. Darn cold. Yet, it was sunny. The Fall colors were a non show, sadly. In this area, they are extremely late changing this year. The Aspens (shockingly) were still mostly green. The dogwoods were just starting to change color, but were still mostly green as well. I was hoping to get some nice shots of the dogwoods with Giant Sequoia trees but I did not even bother. I took my mom and brother-in-law on a couple hikes to a couple different waterfalls. At least those were flowing.

On our last day there (Thursday), I decided to go up to the summit of Ebbetts Pass to catch the sunrise. It was pretty cloudy as I headed up and I was thinking there would not be any sunrise to speak of either. But as I drove up to the summit, the clouds broke, and I could tell a good sunrise was a brewing. I had never been up there before, so I had no idea where to shoot from or if there would even be a spot to shoot from. I got lucky, as I came across this vista point just before reaching  the summit. The timing was about perfect, as the color was already happening as I arrived. I did not waste any time getting my camera out and setting up for the shot. It was a very good morning.

This past weekend, we headed up north and I went over to Lassen Volcanic National Park, again. I was leading a workshop on Saturday, but on Friday I headed up by myself to check out conditions. I was pleasantly surprised.

My plan was to head up West Fork Hat Creek to Paradise Meadow again. I was concerned the creek would not be flowing much, if at all. But thanks to a recent storm, there was fresh snow on Lassen Peak, and the creeks in the park were all flowing again quite nicely from the snow melt. They were also darn cold. That will be a subject of a subsequent post.

In the meantime though, I took this sunrise photo before I headed up the Paradise Meadow trail. It was sunrise as I got to the trailhead, and there was some pretty nice alpenglow light on the peak. I couldn’t resist taking this photo, even though there were not any great colorful clouds around the mountain.

On another note, I seemed to have hurt my leg quite badly. It started hurting the day before I went to Lassen, but it is much worse right now. I have absolutely no idea how I hurt it. But it is putting me out of hiking commission. Bummer. Yet I am still hoping to get out this next weekend to see some Fall colors.