It is mid January now and we still have not had any big storms yet this winter. We have only had a few small storms. The snow pack is less than 50% of normal. There are still no big storms in the forecast and unfortunately, we may be going back into a dry pattern at the end of January. Ugh!
But Saturday was a rain day. I decided I wanted to go out in the rain but just an easy hike. I left Journey at home because it was so wet. She probably would have enjoyed the wetness anyway, but the rocks were slippery and a bit dangerous. I would be going to a waterfall I have not been to before. Well, I made it to the waterfall all right and it was an easy hike all right, however the creek was almost completely dry! I could not believe it. This was a good sized creek. I was not expecting greatness but I was definitely expecting decency. Darn it! Now what should I do? Go home?
Since I was already in the area I figured I would go back to Mooney Flat Falls, which I have been to before. It is an easy hike and I knew it would be flowing a lot better than the first one. I did not want to do anything too difficult today (such as going down to the upper falls), so I just went to the lower falls. Even though it was raining the entire time, I was able to get some good photos of this 29 ft. cascade. It was a lovely rainy day out in Nevada County.
Oh, another easy hike with Journey. It is funny now I am returning to all these easy waterfalls that I have not been to in many years. Get Back to where you once belonged, as John and Paul said. It was 14 years ago I was last at Hidden Falls. I went with my mom, Jadon, and my dog Kaya. This time I went with Nekoda and Journey. Nekoda is home from school for Christmas break and she told me she would go hiking with me if I took Journey. Ok then, Hidden Falls it is.
I hate that you have to pay for parking here now but it has become a very popular park in the last few years. There were not all that many people on this Saturday afternoon but there were quite a few. More than expected.
Journey is always so happy when we go on a hike. It is so cute. She seemed especially happy on this one. Ecstatically happy. Probably because Nekoda was with us.
We arrived at the viewpoint. There was one other couple that came when we were there but mostly we had it to ourselves. We took photos. Then we hiked back to the car.
I wasn’t planning to but Nekoda wanted to stop and get Carl’s for dinner. This is another thing I hate. Whenever I used to buy Kaya a hamburger after a hike, it was only a dollar, maybe two at the most. Now it is five dollars. Ridiculously stupid but I still got one for Journey anyway. She deserved it. It was a good day at Hidden Falls.
Thanksgiving Day. I was on my way up north to visit family and I had Journey with me. The plan was to get in a morning hike before Thanksgiving dinner. To the waterfall with 100 names: Fairy Falls, Shingle Falls, Dry Creek Falls, Beale Falls. We arrived at the trailhead 30 minutes late. It was Journey’s fault but she is so cute, I cannot be mad at her. However, we had to run down the trail to make up time. No time to smell the flowers. I promised her she could smell them all on the way back when we could take it slow (and she did).
We got to the upper Falls in time. I took some photos. It was not flowing too great but it was all right. When I was here with my previous dog, Kaya, many years ago, we tried to get down to the bottom at the upper waterfall. Kaya could not do it. Kaya was a master at steep rock scrambling, so I knew if she could not do it, there is no way Journey could do it and I did not even try. However, Kaya was able to get down to the bottom of the lower Falls. I hoped Journey would be able to, however, it was much steeper than I expected. She did not want to and I did not want to force her. There was another path down to the bottom, however, and Journey was able to get down this way even though it was quite steep as well. Excellent job, Journey! The problem was that you cannot see the waterfall from this location, but I could see it if I scrambled up on the rocks. So that is what I did. Again, I left Journey safely, and she could see me the entire time. She waited in perfect patience for me as I took photos of the lower falls. She was very awesome.
We took our time hiking back. She smelled all the flowers. And all the dog poop as well. We saw one other guy with his dog and then a huge group of people. We made it in time for Thanksgiving dinner. It was a great morning at Fairy Falls.
I realized that most of the hikes on my list now are very difficult ones. I have done pretty much all the easy ones. All that is left are ones with cliffs, steep rocky terrain, river crossings, etc. to negotiate. Our new puppy Journey cannot do these types of hikes.
Yet I want to take Journey on many hikes to waterfalls in the future (or even without waterfalls). So I have started making a second list now. Hikes that I have done before which I know are easy enough for her to do. I will be revisiting waterfalls that I have seen before once or maybe multiple times. At the same time (not exactly the same time – ha ha) I will also be continuing the hikes by myself which are more difficult. Ch-ch-changes are in the air for me.
First on the list: American Canyon Creek Falls. I chose this one first very intentionally as I will explain shortly. It is a fairly easy hike down the trail until you get to the waterfall. There are ticks and poison oak, but in November, there is none of that. Good thing I chose November for this one, otherwise she would have picked up a bunch of the little beasts (although she still did manage to get a couple of them on her – ugh). Of course the creek is also low in November and it has not rained much yet, but I figured it would still be all right.
The first new thing I learned about Journey: She doesn’t care about horse poop or bear poop, only dog poop. There was plenty of all three on the trail and she completely ignored the first two. The second thing is this: she is quite scared of going down steep rocky terrain. Of course she has not ever done this before and hopefully she will get a lot better with it. The last part down to the creek is quite steep and she would not go down. She would also not let me carry her. She did manage to get down one steep part but then could not get back up afterwards so I had to lift her back up. Anyway there is no way she could get down to the creek level. This is what I suspected would happen and this is the big reason why I came here. I wanted to see how she would do, while waiting for me to take my photos. I tied her up in a safe spot and then went down to the creek, crossed it, and took photos. She could see me the entire time and she sat down and waited for me with perfect patience! She was absolutely very awesome. I was proud of her. I took my photos quickly and went back up to her.
You will notice that there is now a big new rock embedded in the middle of the waterfall. Well this is a big change. Ugh. This definitely has ruined the prior character that this waterfall once had but it creates a new character for it. Is it better or worse? Well I definitely liked the old character much better, but I admit it is still interesting and I think at higher flows it will even be more interesting.
We hiked back up the trail to the car and went home. I don’t even think Journey was very tired. She wanted to play fetch with mom as soon as we got back home (after she ate her hamburger, of course).
Thanks to waterfallswest friend Scotty for sharing this great find.
As of March 1, the snow pack in California is at 151% of average (north), 196% (central) and 231% (south). Precipitation is 117% of average (north), 158% (central) and 167% (south). If all the complainers back in January got their way then we would only be at normal average for the year, and still would be in a horrible drought this summer and likely seeing more forest fires than normal. I am happy to say the complainers did not get their way (though I thought they would when the rains stopped back in January). The storms picked up again with a vengeance in late February and are continuing into March. The snow pack is near an all time high. The waterfalls will be flowing well this year throughout the entire summer. The Madman is very happy. We still have a moderate to severe drought in most areas of California but this continues to improve. By spring I think the drought may be mostly gone. You may be wondering how is this all possible? We have La Nina conditions, exactly the same as last year. Every single weather forecaster said we would have another well below average winter. Every single one. There is really only one explanation in my opinion: God. He has answered all our prayers for rain and snow and to end the drought. In one fell swoop. Thank you Lord but I have to admit the extremes in California just kill me. I would much prefer to just have an average season every year.
Anyway enough of that. Onto my hike this weekend. I had no idea this waterfall (waterfalls) existed. It is an unnamed creek. I did not even consider it in my research. Why would I? However, with all the rain we have had, the creek is flowing very well and I could see from my friend’s photos that this would be a great waterfall find and definitely worth visiting. I did not know exactly where it was located on the creek. I assumed it would be down by the river. That was most logical. So I hiked the trail all the way down to the confluence at the river. No waterfall. Ugh. It must be upstream somewhere.
Now things got very hairy. I started bushwhacking up the creek. Bushwhacking indeed! The poison oak was absolutely atrocious. I gave up even trying to avoid the stuff. I can only hope I scrubbed it all off when I got home. There was a path in places but mostly it was a crazy bushwhack up the mountain, in the creek, through the brush, through the oak. I almost gave up. Where are those darn waterfalls anyway? I did not want to go back down to the river. That would have been just too hard. There was a big storm coming and the rain was supposed to start very soon. But I was not sure I would be able to exit upstream. It was incredibly brushy and getting worse and worse. I bushwhacked the entire length of the creek from the bottom to the top (to where it finally crossed the trail). I found a couple lower waterfalls that were 20 ft high (but hard to photograph). Finally I reached the main waterfall, an outstanding 41 ft. high cascade. I found it! We shall call it Drivers Flat Falls. I relaxed here a bit, taking many photographs. Then I continued going up the creek hoping to find an exit point so I would not have to retreat back down all the way to the river (thankfully I found one). It was a marvelous day in Auburn State Recreation Area.
