Leon Turnbull Photography

When I checked the weather forecast on Friday morning, it said it would start raining by 8AM on Saturday. I checked it again on Friday evening,  and it now said 7AM. Heavy rain. I really really wanted to get up to the Big Waterfall (at least) before it started. Preferably, I wanted to get back across the creek before it started. If the rock was wet and slick, it would be a lot more tricky to cross the creek. So I prayed, Lord please hold off on the rain until I cross the creek. After that, have at it.

I set my alarm for 5:45AM. I did not sleep very well. I don’t know why, I guess I just could not get comfortable. And worried about getting back across the creek. I did not want to wake up so early, but I wanted to beat that rain. It was not even cloudy yet, but I knew the rain was coming. It took an hour to get packed up, and then I started the big ascent up the mountain.

The crazy narrow side trail (the Six Inch Trail) to the Big Waterfall was lined with poison oak. It was completely unavoidable. Well, that is rather unfortunate. (understatement of the year). This trail never had poison oak before, from what I remember. The Big Waterfall is 144 ft. high, the biggest of the drops on this magnificent creek. I did not spend much time here, just took my photos and continued on up the mountain, still wanting to beat that rain. I stopped at the two waterfalls above this one to take more photos, and finally arrived at the creek crossing. Still not raining. I was able to jump back across without even getting my feet wet. That was interesting. (another understatement). I filled up my water from the creek and continued on.

I expected the rain to start any minute but it did not. It was after 10AM when I felt the first sprinkles. By this time, I was only five minutes from my car, but the deluge did not even begin until I got back on the freeway. The weather was perfect for the entire hike down to the river and back out. Thank you Lord! It was a short, safe, and fantastic journey to one of my favorite places in the North Fork American River drainage.

Firstly, the bad news. Here are the April 1 statistics: snow pack is at 57% of average (northern CA), 58% (central Sierra), 45% (southern Sierra). Rain fall is at 55% (north), 53% (central), 51% (south). Despite what you may have heard, we did NOT have a miracle March. March precipitation was above average (thankfully), but it did not make up very much in the snow pack. So it is going to be a bleak year (as if it wasn’t already). Interestingly, the late March storms added a lot of snow to lower elevations, so despite the low snow pack, you cannot access anything above 5000 ft. elevation right now (if you were even going to go out). Storms are continuing into April, but that will end soon and the snow will start melting quickly and soon be over. Yosemite is closed. 🙁

Secondly, for my hike this past weekend, I need to say that I did not break any rules or orders. I did not interact with a single person the entire weekend. I did not stop anywhere in between my house and the trailhead. I did not put anyone at risk whatsoever, including myself. I should not have to say any of that, and I’m sure 99% person of my readers are good, but … There are two sides, of course, and they are both wrong: On the one hand you have the people who are irresponsible, and don’t care about getting the virus or about spreading it to others. (or they don’t believe they will get it). Then on the other end of the spectrum, you have those living in fear, and they are spreading their fear and hate to everyone else, shaming those who go out hiking (even though they are being completely responsible). At this time in our history, we must be united. We must be helping each other and loving each other. So please everyone, stop spreading hate. Start spreading love.

I had hoped to go to higher elevation this weekend, but the low elevation snow stopped me in my tracks, and I could not get anywhere near the trailhead. I turned around and went to Plan B. This is one of my all time favorite creeks in the North Fork American River drainage. There are no less than seven magnificent waterfalls on this creek. It has been quite a few years since I have been down there. In fact, it has been 11 years since I went all the way down to the river. I’ve been wanting to return for quite some time now, and I’ve been wanting to camp down there so I would have more time. This would be a good weekend to do it.

There were three big problems, of course, and not necessarily in this order: (1) Ticks. This is Tick City. I have been down this trail more than once and had to retreat because the ticks were so bad; they were all over me, and literally forced me back. (2) Poison oak. Nuff said. (3) Crossing the creek. There used to be a bridge over the creek but it is long gone. If the creek is too high, it cannot be crossed (and I have had to retreat because of this also).

I got to the trailhead, and started my hike. It was a beautiful morning. There was a storm coming the next day, and I hoped to get out of the canyon before I got too wet. As you get closer to the creek crossing, you begin to hear the creek although you cannot see it yet and you are high above it. It did not sound very crossable. The North Fork American River was flowing at 800 cfs. In my notes, I anticipated that I should be able to cross the creek if it was 1500 cfs or less, definitely not any more than this. So it should be crossable, but it did not sound crossable.

Eventually, I arrived at the creek crossing. Well, hmmm, … It definitely looked a bit tricky, but it did look crossable. I made it across successfully and without incident. I do think 1500 would be too much, but maybe a little more would be fine. I had my lunch on the other side of the creek on the rocks. From here, things now get much more interesting as the trail descends steeply all the way to the river. Waterfalls galore. Magnificent views galore. Narrow trail. Huge (deathly) dropoffs. Poison oak galore. Ticks galore.

The ticks were actually very manageable. Surprise surprise! They were definitely out, hanging about on the grasses, but they were easily avoidable if you were careful. (and I was careful). The poison oak was a different story. It was all over the place. The urushiol oil was just oozing off the leaves, daring you to get close to it. On the way down, I somehow avoided touching it (thankfully), but on the way back up, I touched it multiple times. I scrubbed myself down when I got home. Hopefully, I do not get the rash.

I was hoping to camp either down at the river (preferably), or at the sixth waterfall (just above the seventh). There was no way to get down to the sixth waterfall that I could see, and there were no places to camp along the river (it was far too rocky). There was literally one small place to set up camp along the cliff, essentially right along the trail, above the river. It was a short walk down to the river from here, and the spot was tight, and uncomfortably close to giant poison oak leaves. It was a little windy here as well, so I had to set up the Zpacks tent much lower than preferable. It would have to do.

I ate my dinner, then went up to see the sixth and seventh waterfalls. I should have gone up to see more waterfalls since I had a lot of time;  they were further up the canyon, however, and I had planned to see them in the morning on the way back up. I think that was a big mistake since I had so much time and the weather was so perfect. In the morning, it would be raining. Oh well. I definitely will be back here again.

Shown above is the seventh waterfall, 26 ft. high, located right at the confluence with the NF American River. It is a magnificent place. I was camped essentially right near the top of the waterfall. There is a better campsite on the other side, but very deadly to cross the creek above the falls. Not taking any chances on that, I chose my small spot next to the poison oak. I had a good night, listening to the multitudes of birds throughout the canyon. I still wanted to see the Big Waterfall in the morning. Hopefully, before the rain started …

This weekend was a disaster. Or it started out that way. I drove 110 miles to go on a hike to see a waterfall. It was a beautiful morning. The hike was good. I arrived down to the waterfall. It was completely dry. Not even a trickle. This was all just after a big storm. How could it possibly be dry? I was not expecting it be roaring, but I definitely expected it to be decent. After this hike, I had a second hike planned as well in the same area. However, I scrapped it. If the first waterfall was dry, the second one would likely be dry as well. I decided to just drive on back home, 110 miles.

I was feeling bummed, so I decided to redeem myself in the afternoon and go on another hike close to home. This one I knew would be flowing.

Going to this waterfall on a Saturday afternoon is iffy. I much prefer hiking here in the morning. There is only room for 4 cars to park at the trailhead. Well, I arrived at 1:30PM and there was exactly one space available for me. Thank you God for saving it for me. I saw all the other hikers coming up the hill as I was going down. One of them asked me if one could backpack down here on this trail. I thought that was a weird question, but afterwards it donned on me that he saw my big camera pack, and must have thought I was backpacking, not day hiking. Ha ha. I also noticed a LOT of small burned areas along the trail. It was as if people were having campfires in various spots all along the trail. After the first few, I realized this was some sort of official burning (ie. not random kids doing it).  But why? Why would the park rangers do all this burning of wood along the trail? I can think of three very good reasons not to do this: (1) It violates Leave No Trace principles, (2) It could easily start a forest fire, and (3) It is just plain stupid. I don’t get it. Someone please explain it to my little brain.

I have been to American Canyon Creek Falls many times before. It is a fairly easy hike. It is a little thing, but it is a pretty little thing, and very unique. I love this littlest waterfall. I did not really want to go back to American Canyon this weekend, I would have much preferred better success in the morning on the two different hikes, but nonetheless I enjoyed myself down at the littlest falls. I hiked back up the hill, arriving at the car just before dark, I drove home, ate my spaghetti dinner, and watched my Vancouver Canucks move into first place after beating the Sharks. Yeah. It may have been a bad morning, but the afternoon and evening were great.

I got up in the dark at 4:15AM, packed up quickly and headed up the mountain. I wanted to try to find a new waterfall. However, I totally underestimated the hike. It was an hour back up to the road. Then I had 3 miles to hike from there, however, it was off trail, with much elevation gain, through swamps, too much brush, and across icy hard (and dangerous) snow fields. It took far longer than anticipated. I was still at least an hour away from the falls when I realized the waterfall was already in the sun, and I had no chance to make it. I had run out of time, and I was past my turning around time. I needed to get back home. The animals I left alone all weekend would be starving by now. I will be back to this one some day when I have more time. Despite having to turn around, it was still an interesting hike with some great views of the Desolation Wilderness.

It was a very long hike back to the car. It was very hot as well (despite it being very cold in the morning). Thankfully, it was mostly downhill. I got back to my vehicle at noon, and home in time to have a big pizza for dinner. (and the animals were all fine of course).

This photo is the top section of Middle Bassi Falls from my campsite.

I went up to Bassi Falls on Saturday morning. I did not get up early. I have been there many times before, and I have many good photos of Bassi Falls. Why would I go back to Bassi Falls? When the light would be very bad? The answer is: so I could get some video of the falls. I was not happy about the bad lighting, but I just did not want to get up at 3AM. So there.

Even though I was not super early, I was the first one to arrive at Bassi Falls. Bassi Creek is well past peak flow now, but it is still not crossable. An important point to note for later. It was not long before the hordes showed up. It was a Saturday. It was summer. I knew it would be busy at Bassi Falls, but I was not expecting all of this. By the time I left at 10AM, it was already super packed around the falls, and when I got back to the car, the parking lot was overflowed. Yikes! There was a time not long ago, when no one went to Bassi Falls, not even in summer. You needed a four wheel drive to get to the trailhead, so that was a big deterrent, plus no one knew about it. What happened? Is it because of Facebook/Instagram? I do not know. I do know it is extremely popular now. I was just talking to someone on Instagram who had a recent photo of Bassi Falls and they said they did not know the name of the waterfall and wanted to keep it secret. Secret? What is the point of that? That ship has long passed by, many years ago. Also, how can you come here (apparently, more than once) and not know the name of this waterfall? There are multiple signs saying “Bassi Falls”. You would have to be blind not to see them. And if you are blind, how could you see the waterfall?

It is also interesting to note (and I pondered this as I was sitting on the rocks by the waterfall), is that there is no trash at Bassi Falls. It is such a popular location, yet the lack of trash is very evident! This is an oddity! But it is a very happy oddity. Now having said that, as soon as I got up to leave, I immediately noticed two pieces of trash on the ground (which I picked up of course). Nonetheless, that is all I noticed. I did not look very hard, and I’m sure I could have found more if I did. Still, I was pretty happy to find extremely little garbage at Bassi Falls. In fact, it was so shocking that I was thinking I must be on a different planet.

My main plan for the weekend was to backpack to Middle Bassi Falls and camp there for the night. I was also hoping to find a brand new waterfall as well. I would not be going up to Middle Bassi the same way as I have done before. This was to be a new route, one that would put me on the correct side of the river (creek), in order to properly view and photograph the waterfall. The way I have gone in the past, you cannot view the falls very easily, and remember, the creek is still not crossable right now. I would not have to cross Bassi Creek with this new route, but is it even possible?

I just had my little car with me. The road is dirt and is really ok for cars, but there are many sharp rocks on the road, and I was really worried I would get a flat, which would be really bad way out here in the middle of nowhere. I parked two miles from the trailhead and walked the rest of the way. I saw zero people on this hike in these two days, except for one couple which I will mention below.

It is an extremely steep climb, gaining 1400 ft. of elevation. It is a huffer and a puffer. Once this is climbed, you need to drop off the road and down to Bassi Creek, losing 700 ft. of elevation. I was thinking this section could possibly be brushy and impossible to negotiate, but I mapped my route out on Google Earth, and thought I could do it. There was definitely a lot of brush and it would indeed be impossible if you do not do it correctly, but I did it correctly and there was not so much brush that I could not get through it. Really, it was not a problem at all. There were no trails. No human trails, that is. There were bear trails. I saw bear evidence (ie. Poop) even down at my campsite. It was not too fresh, but clearly bears (or bear) went down this way to get down to the creek (right beside where I had my tent setup). Lovely.

I found a perfect camping area at the top of Middle Bassi Falls. Well, not exactly perfect because it was not exactly flat, but it was good enough. There was a stiff breeze all afternoon and evening. I was not expecting this (according to the forecast), but it was extremely welcome, and it kept the mosquitoes completely away. I had a long wait until sunset. The falls would be in the sun right up until the end of the day. I tried to nap, laying down on the rocks, but there were a lot of ants and I constantly had to brush them off of me. At one point, I felt one on my leg and brushed it off, except it was not an ant. It was a bee! And it stung me! Ugh. Needless to say, I did not get any sleep.

I had some interesting visitors while I waited. There was a couple on the other side of the creek, who obviously came up the creek from the big waterfall downstream. I have done this before as well. It is extremely brushy going that route. Not recommended. I am sure that they wanted to cross Bassi Creek to get a better view of the middle falls. As I said above, you cannot see it very well from that side. It would certainly be foolish to attempt a crossing, however. They looked up and down the creek, but could not find a good way to cross it. I am sure they were wondering how the heck I got across the creek! Eventually, they gave up and went back down towards the big waterfall. I was all alone once more (just the way I like it). All the while this was happening I was giving the play by play to my wife (I had cell service here). Ha ha.

In the evening, the sun finally dipped below the mountains, and I went down to take my photographs. The middle falls is not very comparable to the huge waterfall downstream (it is only 28 ft. high), but the creek was rushing fast and furious down the granite rock, and it is a very exciting slide. It was a (surprisingly) cold night, but I slept fairly well. I would have to get up very early the next morning.