Leon Turnbull Photography

As of March 1, the snow pack is at 62% (northern CA), 69% (central Sierra), 45% (southern Sierra). Rainfall is at 50% (north), 51% (central), 39% (south). I saw some media reports of higher numbers, but where did they get those from? They are very inaccurate (and of course, people believe anything they see on the news). I think what they do is they take just a couple readings from one or two locations and then say that is the average snow pack in California. Anyway, the real snow pack is much more dismal than what the media says. But the real question is, will we get another miracle March? Rain is starting up again in March, but we need a heckuva lot of rain/snow. We have had ONE big storm this season. That is it! In a normal year, we would get 5 or 6 big storms. SIGH.

This is Stevenson Creek Falls in Sierra National Forest.

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The first time I came to this waterfall was in May 2011. Stevenson Creek was raging. It was raging so much that the water was crashing over the bridge making it completely impossible to cross. The problem was that the best views of the waterfall are on the far side of the bridge, so I could only get a partial view of the falls from the near side. I vowed to return some day.

Ten years later …

It was time …

I’m not sure why I chose to go back this past weekend. You know, it just felt right, I guess. I knew the creek was flowing (and not raging).  It is a 4 hour drive from my home. That makes for a very long day.

I arrived at the trailhead at 1PM. The parking along the road was completely packed of cars. I expected to see some people for sure, but not this many! It was crazy! Ugh. Well, there was no choice. I had to continue with my plan. Hopefully, by the time I got to the falls everyone will have left and be on their way back. I took my mask with me (not something I normally do on a hike), expecting there to be just way too many people, but it really wasn’t like that. Everyone was well spread out, and the road is very wide so there is plenty of room and I did not feel that there were too many people on the trail.

When I arrived at the waterfall there were two other groups still there and they were in my way for taking photos, so I continued down the road a bit and climbed up the cliffs. I wanted to see if I could see the upper tier of the waterfall. I just could not get a full view of it, however. I could not climb up high enough as it became too cliffy and I could only see the very top of it. Well, it was a pretty good and unique viewpoint so I took a photo from up there. By the time I got back down to the bridge, everyone had left and I had it to myself. For a bit. Stevenson Creek Falls was flowing quite nice but I did expect there to be more flow in it. Nonetheless, I was able to get some good photos. Redemption achieved.

The litter along the road was awful. People left their toilet paper everywhere. People threw out their masks on the side of road (so some poor bird or animal can come along and get caught up in it). Why are people so bloody disgusting? Pack out your stupid trash, people. Especially your toilet paper! You should not be allowed to hike if you cannot pack our trash. Of course, no one else bothered to pick up any of the trash along the road (of the many people who hiked there this day). I suppose I should not blame them, but I do blame them. Everyone should be doing their part to clean up litter. I had to pick it all up myself.  So annoying. End rant.

Well anyway, Stevenson Creek Falls is definitely a beautiful sight. I have at least 3 more good photos other than this one and I spent a lot longer time here than I anticipated. Someone else eventually did come down to the waterfall as I was finishing up taking my photos. I’m not sure what he was doing, he was acting a bit strange; I think he was getting ready to fly a drone though I did not see him put one up. Anyway, whatever he was doing, he was friendly and worried that he was in my way of taking photos. Then another family came down as I was leaving, and I saw another couple coming down as well a bit later. All these people would be hiking back in the dark. As it was, I did not get back to my car until after dark as well. Usually I am the last one on the trail but not today. I really had a very pleasant hike and the walk back in the dusk was very peaceful and relaxing. It was a wonderful day in Sierra National Forest.

 

 

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It was very windy all night long. The wind was blowing my tent around left and right. I got very little sleep. When I say all night, I mean all night. It was still very windy in the morning at sunrise. I was thinking (all night) what I would do the next day. I wanted to continue up the valley. But what about the gnats? If the gnats were not out in the morning, I decided I would continue. Surely, I thought, with the wind still blowing, they would not be out in the morning. Yet they were still out and very bothersome! Once I packed up my tent and ate breakfast, the wind had stopped. Now the gnats were excruciating! Already! Again! They would be all over me, without break, all day long, if I continued hiking up the valley. Not just today, but the next day as well, and the next after that.

There was only one option: Hike out of the valley and back home. It was the right decision, but I was bummed I only got to see the one waterfall on this trip.

The trail out of the valley is nicknamed: son of a b-*-*-*-h trail. It is most definitely that. As I said, it is THE MOST DIFFICULT trail I have ever hiked before. It took over 3 hours to hike the 2.0 miles and 3000 ft. to the top. The gnats were very bothersome the entire way up the trail, and even at the top, over 7000 ft. in elevation, they were still annoying me incredibly. I definitely learned a lesson here. If I am hiking in September in the Sierra, I need to hike at higher elevation, preferably above 7000 ft.  (maybe 6000 is ok, but 7000 or above would be preferable to avoid the gnats). On the hike back, I met another group of backpackers heading down into the valley. They were prepared. They knew there would be gnats and they had head nets. A head net would have been very helpful for sure, but I still probably would have hiked out the next day anyway. Nonetheless, I am going to return to Tehipite Valley some day. There is so much more there that I want to explore. I will probably do it a lot differently, but I will definitely be back. Maybe October would be a much better time to go there.

I did not hike all the way back to the car. I stopped at Crown Valley, where I found a great camping area near the creek. It took all day to get to this location (which was still about 9 miles from the trailhead). I was absolutely exhausted after two days in a row of extreme hiking.  There were no gnats at Crown Valley, and there was no wind, and I slept like a baby. I got about 11 hours of sleep, and was well rested the next day for the relatively easy 9 mile hike back to my car. I was home by dinner time.

In this photo you can see one of the upper tiers of Silver Spray Falls.

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Tehipite Madness is a real thing. A real disease. This is a warning. If you continue to read this article, you may catch it. Believe me. It starts off small: a mild curiosity and interest. Over time, perhaps years, it slowly grows and grows, until it becomes an unstoppable torrent of madness. You cannot stop thinking about Tehipite, day and night. The only cure: you must go there. The problem: getting there is no easy task. Tehipite Valley is perhaps the most difficult hike you will ever do in your life. Actually, it is not a debate. It is the most difficult.

In my case, the madness was something even worse.

The madness started about three years ago, I guess. You cannot go to Tehipite in the spring and of course summer is too hot among other things, so the Fall is when you need to go. For waterfalls, that means I needed a big snow year. In 2017, I was not ready to go to Tehipite, physically or mentally  (and you need both). My big trip that year was to the North Fork San Joaquin (which was awesome). 2018 was a bad snow year, so that was out. Along comes 2019, another big snow year. Tehipite Valley was my top priority for the Fall this year. The planning was extensive, the madness was building ferociously inside of me. Finally the day came. I’m not sure how ready I was physically or mentally. Even though I had worked my butt off all summer long, I did not lose any weight. I was still at least 10 pounds over what I wanted to be. However, I did feel a lot stronger, so perhaps all the fat just turned into muscle. I don’t know. As for mentally … well ….

My maps told me it was 14.5 miles to the valley. In reality, it was 16.2 miles one way. I do not really understand the big difference, but there are a lot of zigs and zags, I guess, and ups and downs as well. I started hiking at 8:45AM. It took all day to get to the valley, and I arrived at about 5:45pm. Along the way, I met a group of Asian backpackers, only one of whom spoke English. As I approached them, one of  the ladies got out her cell phone as I walked up and started taking my picture. What the heck?? I’m not sure how I felt about this. I am not that good looking. I talked to the one guy who spoke my language. He said the trail was in pretty bad condition and very difficult to follow. There was a fire here some years ago and it decimated the trail to Tehipite Valley.  I was not surprised to hear this news, but since these people and many others have made it through, I expected I would have no problems either. But he also said something else: the gnats were bad down in the valley. Um, what? Now take note of what he said: the gnats are bad down in the valley. And note what he did NOT say: the gnats down in the valley are absolutely horrific, the gnats are the worst I have ever experienced in my life, the gnats are relentless and will swarm around you without break, and are in the millions.  If he had said any of the last three things, I might have re-evaluated my plan. He did not. I can handle a few gnats, geepers, they are probably not that bad anyway. He was wrong about the trail, after all.

Indeed, the trail was not bad at all. There were only TWO extremely short sections where the trail was overgrown and difficult to follow. It was very easy to get by these two short sections. I was expecting so much worse (not just from the Asian backpacker, but from other reports I have read as well). I did not even need my GPS. These people obviously have not done any off trail hiking before. Granted, it would sure be nice if the Forest Service cleared these sections, but really, I have probably done a hundred hikes much worse than this. This one was easy peasy.

After a lot of hiking, and more uphill hiking than I expected or wanted (I’m supposed to be going down!), I finally came to the rim of the Middle Kings Canyon and my first big view. It is a magnificent view. From here you can see the river (3000 ft. below), waterfalls on the opposite side, and of course the majestic Tehipite Dome, which is the reason “most” people want to hike here. “Most” people does not include the waterfall madman, but without a doubt it is a majestic sight to behold.

From here, you descend 3000 ft. to the river in only 2.0 miles. Let us put this in perspective shall we, because remember … if you go down, you sure better be able to climb back up later. The Upper Yosemite Falls trail is 2700 ft. elevation gain in 3.5 miles. That is 771 feet per mile. The Wabena Falls trail is 2600 ft. elevation gain in 2.4 miles. That is 1083 feet per mile. The Tehipite trail is 3000 ft. elevation gain in 2.0 miles. That is a whopping 1500 ft. per mile. This trail is MORE DIFFICULT than Wabena Falls (which was my #1 most difficult hike – before this one). Not to mention that I was carrying a 40 pound backpack (which I did not have for Wabena Falls). By the time I was ready to ascend back again, that pack was supposed to be a lot less than 40 pounds. However …

As I descended from here, the gnats came out. They got worse and worse as I went down the trail. Honestly, I should have had a head net. It would have made things a lot better, but I was not expecting any bugs! It is late September, after all. Of all the reports about Tehipite that I have read, no one mentioned anything about gnats. You would think this would be an important item to mention! By the time, I got down to the valley floor, the gnats were all over me. They were absolutely the worst I have ever experienced in my life, without a doubt. I had hoped that when I got to the open area where I would be camping, they would not be bothersome. Nope! They were horrendous everywhere. I set up my camp, ate my dinner, and went to see the waterfall.

Thankfully, there were no gnats at the waterfall. But unfortunately, there is no place to camp at the waterfall. I should have strung a hammock across the creek at the base of the falls. Ha! To see Silver Spray Falls, you have to cross the creek three times. In late September, it was a challenge crossing the creek. In the spring and early summer, it would be impossible without a doubt. You would not even be able to see the waterfall at that time of year. Even now, this late in the year, the spray at the falls was quite intense, making photography very difficult. I guess that is why they call it Silver SPRAY Falls! Nonetheless, it is an incredibly beautiful waterfall. This lower drop shown here is 160 ft. high, and there are upper tiers as well (the total height is 370 ft.). Silver Spray Falls is worth all the difficulty to see. However, what was I going to do next? …

 

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This one was a really fun one to get to. I thought it would be easy. Just rock hop across the river, and walk up to the bottom of the falls on this tributary creek. But … when I got to the creek, I could not see the falls. It was up around the corner. Humm, well I climbed up the ridge and got to the top of the falls. But no view of the waterfall, and it was too steep to get down. One other option: Go back down to the bottom, and wade up the creek to the falls. Fortunately the creek was not deep, but it was quite cold. It worked though. I came to this awesome little nook at the bottom of the waterfall with a great view of the stunning falls. Of course, as soon as I got out my camera gear, the sun came back out. I had to wait, and decided to get out my dinner and sit down. It was not long, however, before the clouds covered the sun again, and I was able to take photos.

This waterfall on NF Goddard Creek is the tallest of the falls in Goddard Canyon at 67 ft. high, and probably hardly ever visited. Yet I think it is the prettiest of all of them.

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