Leon Turnbull Photography

My friend Rob likes to call me the waterfall madman, for some reason or other. I don’t know why. Well I suppose I am a bit crazy sometimes. Like this weekend, for instance.

My adventure today took me back to Clipper Creek in Auburn, and this time was indeed crazier than the last time I was here, about 2 years ago. My goal was Upper Clipper Creek Falls, oh humbala, is it even possible? I was about to find out.

I started hiking in the dark from the Confluence (by the way, what is up with the $10 paid parking here now? Ugh!). The first mile is easy smeasy, climbing up on a wide dirt road, under the Foresthill Bridge, the tallest bridge in California (hoping nothing drops on my head as they do construction up there), then to the first crossing at Clarks Pool. I kinda thought this creek would be very difficult to cross because of all the recent rain, but the creek was actually really low, so it was easy to rock hop across it.

After Clarks Pool, things get rather interesting. The “trail” continues for another mile all the way to Clipper Creek. The trail is quite overgrown, with a ton of poison oak, and of course, ticks. If you wait too late to come here, say February or March, you may as well just jump off that Foresthill Bridge instead. Your fate will be much the same. The trail will be infested with ticks and seriously deadly (or deadly serious – or both). By coming in December, I thought to avoid such deathliness. The ticks should NOT be out yet in December … Well, the ticks WERE out already in December. I saw probably a couple thousand of them along the trail, hanging off the branches (well, maybe not that many). I was constantly brushing them off the branches with my hiking pole so they wouldn’t leap onto me and crawl up my private parts or who knows where. I only picked up 3 or 4 on my body, and got them off before they were able to bite me, so I managed all right, but another month and you can just forget it. Write your last will before you come. And as for the poison oak? Well, that is just not avoidable at all, though I did try, especially to not touch it with my hands. I scrubbed myself raw with Tecnu when I got back home, and I can only hope it is enough to keep me from getting the itch.

I took a different route than the last time I was here. There seem to be quite a few “trails” along the ridge over to Clipper Creek. This in itself is weird, because I just can’t imagine anyone (except for crazies like myself) who would do this hike. In fact, I have serious doubts that anyone else went over to Clipper Creek in the last 2 years since I was there last. Yet there are these old trails. The one I went on followed a much lower contour than the one I took the last time. I don’t know that it was any better. There was still a lot of oak. And there were also quite a few scary drop-offs which I did not like one bit. It took quite a while. Finally I got to Clipper Creek.

It is only about a quarter mile to the upper falls, but it is much brushier from this point. More brush. More oak. More ticks. I was not sure I would be able to make it at all. And yet … there was a trail to follow. Of course it was overgrown. I worked my way up to a side stream coming down from the left which I had to cross. It looked like there was a waterfall on this creek as well, but I did not stop to investigate. I crossed and continued up Clipper Creek. I made it. The upper falls was exactly where I predicted it would be. The slope was very steep so I could not get down to creek level and I had to photograph it from the side of the hill very carefully, hoping the ground would not give way and send me tumbling off the cliff (to my wife if she is reading this: I am kidding!). But it was a steep slope. The upper falls is only 22 ft. high. I expected around 40 or 50 ft. I am not sure but my gut tells me that it may continue around the corner but I could not get past the cliff to see it.

I was really hoping to photograph the lower falls afterwards, but it took a lot longer to get to the upper falls than I thought it would. By the time I got back down, the lower falls was in sun, so I just skipped it (I have photographed it before so it was no biggie). On the hike back out, I tried to take the higher contour that I took last time. Somehow, however, I got on another “trail”, this one leading on a contour much much higher. It seemed to just keep climbing higher and higher, trying to pass above the cliffs. I just kept following it because the trail was not hard to follow, but it was a tougher route. Finally it seemed to just come to a dead end, when I was almost back to Clarks Pool. It was fine all the way, and now it is going to end? What the hey? I decided to just go straight down hill to the main trail, hoping it was not too brushy to get down. I made it. It was definitely a crazy day, but I am sure happy I found the upper falls on Clipper Creek.

With all this rain lately, I wanted to get out a few more times to enjoy the waterfalls (before they all dry up), so I headed out one evening to Traverse Creek Falls. It has been awhile since I have been to this one, but usually I go at least once a year.

I arrived at the trailhead late in the day and started the short hike into the falls. I knew it was going to be interesting at the very first small stream crossing, at which I had to make a significant effort to jump across. Hmmm, I never had to do that before. At this point already I knew the creek was in full torrent mode, higher than I have ever seen it before. Traverse Creek Falls has four modes: Dry, Single, Double, and Torrent Mode. I may need to add a fifth mode: Super Torrent.

Along the way, I came across some people carrying kayaks back up the trail. They were out for the afternoon enjoying themselves on the waterfall. When the creek is high like this, kayakers like going over this 30 ft. high waterfall – crazy people if you ask me, but they seemed to be very happy on the walk back (happy that they didn’t break anything, perhaps?). It is too bad I did not arrive 30 minutes or so earlier, or I could have seen and photographed them going over the falls.

The trail descends steeply to Traverse Creek, at which point you need to walk along the creek bed to the brink of the waterfall, then climb past the waterfall and descend on ropes to the bottom. With the creek very high, it was quite a challenge to walk along the creek bed. There were some spots that the water was practically right up against the bank, making it difficult to continue without getting wet feet. Again, I have never seen it like this before. Hmmm. Much higher and I would not have made it at all (and I suspect it was a lot higher last weekend). I climbed up past the waterfall and began the descent to the bottom. This part was also very tricky because the ground was wet and slick. There are ropes, but there is one spot that is especially difficult when the ground is wet, and instead of risking it, I got out my own rope to help me down this part (the rope that is there is not in the correct position for this section).

Once down at the bottom, I set up shop to photograph the falls, before it got too dark. The waterfall was absolutely incredible, and there was a lot of mist making it very difficult to get in close to the falls to photograph. I had to move back a bit and shoot more of a wide angle shot of the waterfall. This worked quite all right. There was a bit of fog above the falls, and on the drive back home the fog was extremely thick on the road. I kinda wished there was more fog down by the waterfall. Oh well. On the plus side, I did not see any garbage this time down by the falls. Usually, I have to truck out a big bag every year cuz certain idiots like to come here in the summer and leave their crap behind. I am very happy to see that this place is not a trash heap anymore.

I did not feel like doing a very tough hike this weekend, so I decided to stay close to home and try out one of my favorite little waterfalls in the Auburn area, American Canyon Creek Falls. It is only 15 ft. high, but it is such a cool little waterfall, dropping through an extremely narrow crevice into a deep beautiful pool, and it is a fun hike down to it as well.

Another good thing about doing an easy hike close to home (instead of a killer tough hike) is that I can drag my son and dog along as well. I did not actually have to drag them along. They both came quite willingly this time (of course, the dog is always more than willing to come along, but sometimes the son is not so willing). This time, however, Jadon was quite happy to join me on a hike, and in fact he seems to be enjoying the hikes more and more lately. That makes Dad very happy.

We arrived at the trailhead at around sunrise. On the previous day, the forecast said it was going to be raining in Auburn all night, and most of the morning. I was expecting to get quite wet on this hike. However, when I woke up I discovered that Auburn received very little rain that night and there was no more expected that morning. This latest storm did not drop too much precipitation at all. This made me a bit anxious about the creek flow. I thought it might be nothing more than a trickle. I did not have to worry though, the waterfall was flowing all right. The lower flow also made it easier to cross the creek at the waterfall. When I was here last time with Jadon, the creek was flowing much too strongly for him to make it across, so he did not in fact see the waterfall. This time, he could make it across easily, and he finally got to take a gander at this little beauty.

Whenever I come here, I think I will try to get a different perspective of this waterfall, photograph it from a different angle. I do not know what I was thinking, I should know better. There really is just one and only one angle to photograph the waterfall. It drops through such a narrow slot, if you take just a half step to the right or left, it is out of view behind the rocks. There is no other possible way to photograph it. Ah well, it is still a gorgeous view. And I must say, I am quite pleased with my photograph this time as well.

I also wanted to take Jadon down to the lower falls on this creek. It requires more of a scramble however, down a steep bank. We started down it, but after slipping a couple times Jadon decided emphatically that he did not want to venture any further down to the creek, saying it was much too steep. It is not really all that steep and I know he could have made it, but I did not want to push him so we turned around and went back up.

We took it easy going back up the hill to our car. I saw one tick on the way. This is not good at all. It is far too early for ticks to be out. This one was just a tiny little thing, a baby, but in a couple months, they will be huge and all over the place. Anyway, we made it back up to the car, having seen no one on the trails the entire morning. Jadon (and Kaya as well) were quite tired by the end of it, but all in all we had a very good day, hiking in Auburn together.

Why does the Devil always get nice places named after him anyway? Hmmm? Devils Falls? Devils Peak? Devils Punchbowl? Devils Canyon? That should not be allowed, I think.

Here is the standard view of Devil’s Falls, or the one that I like to shoot the most anyway. It involves crossing the creek, which is always tricky because the rocks are always wet and slick. You really gotta be careful doing this. I was, and there were no unfortunate mishaps. We have a little bit more rain coming tonight, but I don’t think it will be too much. It is still early in the season. I must keep telling myself this. 😉

I said I was not going to share my photo of Shirttail Creek Falls. I lied. Here it is. It is not a great shot of this waterfall by any means, but it turned out ok. There is a huge dropoff here into the creek, and a narrow, wet, slippery ledge, with no handholds, that you can walk out on to get a view of the falls. I was not feeling too daring so I did not go out very far this time. Next time … next time I think I will try to get to the bottom of the falls. Not sure how, but perhaps if I approach it from downstream, I will be able to get down to creek level. Maybe.

So does everyone know how Shirttail Creek got its name? It is a pretty interesting story. Back in the year 1849, two miners were prospecting in the area and happened to come across another miner panning for gold. He was wearing absolutely nothing in the way of clothing except for a shirt, not overly lengthy. Embarrased, the newcomers asked the other miner what the name of the place was. After glancing down at his outfit, he answered, “do not know any name for it yet, but we might as well call it shirt-tail, as anything else”. Thus, the creek was named.