Leon Turnbull Photography

The next stop on my north coast adventure was Chamberlain Falls in Jackson State Forest. It is located off the highway about 5 miles or so on a dirt road. Could I make it in my little Honda? Would there be snow on the roads, making passage impossible? Or would the road be too muddy or pothole-ly? Yes, I could make it no problem. The road was perfectly fine.

I got to the trailhead out in the middle of the forest, with no one around. The hike is very short, but it was not without difficulty. There were a number of downed trees across the trail, probably from last year, and they were in a particularly steep section. It required a bit of a detour to get around them, and at this section, the main trail split off into a number of sections, I supposed, as people attempted to get around the downed trees and then down to the falls. It is rather unfortunate about this, as there are now numerous trails descending down through the delicate forest to the waterfall, when there should be one and only one trail. It is just really messy.

Well, I made it down to the falls. It is really a marvelous waterfall, dropping 51 feet in a convex shape into a beautiful grotto. There is an upper section that you can only glimpse. It does feel like you are in another world down there, and I spent quite a bit of time down here taking photos from different vantage points, but it is not an easy waterfall to photograph. Anyway, time to move on and back up the steep trail to the car, and to my next destination.

When I arrived in Willits in the early morning hours, it was snowing. Snowing hard. And sticking! I could not believe it. The town is only at around 1400 ft. elevation, very low to be receiving snow. It was becoming rather difficult to drive but I did not think the snow would last too long once the sun came up. As it got lighter, I could see the surrounding countryside was very beautiful. I was hoping there would be snow at my waterfall destination but I did not think so, because I was descending to a lower elevation.

Dora Falls at Leggett was my first destination. Leggett was quite a bit out of the way, and I was not sure if it would be worth the trip up there. All photos I have seen of Dora Falls have been very crappy, obscured by trees and branches, it did not look like a very scenic waterfall. I was wrong. There was indeed no snow at Dora Falls (which would have been awesome), but it certainly is a very scenic and photogenic waterfall. In fact, I would say it was the best of the five waterfalls I saw on this day. It is a very short hike off the highway up to the falls, and it drops 50 ft. precisely. You can get right up to it, right in the creek, and there are no obscuring branches in the way. I guess in the past, the waterfall was even bigger, before a landslide destroyed much of the waterfall. Too bad about that, but it is still a beauty of a falls and certainly worth the long trip.

There are actually a couple other unknown waterfalls in the Leggett area, and I was hoping to get to one or both of them. I realized, however, in short order, that these would not be possible to get to. Well, they could be possible, I supposed, but they would each require a gargantuan amount of effort to reach, and I did not have the time on this day. I still had a very long day ahead and four other (easier) waterfalls to get to. I would like to return and try to get to them on another day. It will happen someday. I returned to Willits, where much of the snow was already melted, filled up with gas, and then continued to my next destination of the day.

Here is a quick post from my big road trip on Saturday. I have many pics to go through but I wanted to get this first one up, mostly for my wife (who loves lighthouses) but also because I was excited about this one. A waterfall dropping into the ocean, with a lighthouse in the background. What could be better?

I went to five waterfalls on the north coast yesterday. I got up at 2:30AM and returned home at 9:30PM. It was a long day! But it was a very fun day!

I will tell more in subsequent posts, but here are the highlights. As I left the city in the early morning, I saw another coyote. Different location and who knows if it was the same one, but it was crossing the street in front of my car on what is normally a very busy street (obviously, not too busy at 2:30AM). That was about it for the most interesting wildlife I saw on this trip (not counting birds or deer). The forecast called for rain the whole day on the coast. I did not really see much of that while I was hiking, but I did see snow! It was snowing in Willits as I passed through and this was shocking to me, as that town is only at 1400 ft. elevation. Unfortunately, the first waterfall I went to did not have any snow beside it (which would have been super cool).

By the time afternoon came along, the sun was really trying to break through the clouds, and it was succeeding. This was upsetting because obviously I was hoping the clouds would stick around (as they were supposed to do!) all day long. I wanted to get to all these waterfalls in good lighting conditions. Indeed, if I had known the sun would be coming out, I probably would not have done this big trip to the coast. Nonetheless, God provided for me again. Even though the sun was poking through at certain times during the day, whenever I was at a waterfall, the clouds were covering up the sun, and the lighting conditions were very good, for all five waterfalls I went to. This made me very happy of course, thank you Lord. If you read my blog regularly, you might think this happens all the time for me. The truth is, not always, but definitely far more often than not. I believe God knows what is important to us, and He loves us and will give us what we most desire and need, if we ask Him and have faith in Him. It also helps to plan your trip accordingly. If all the forecasts are telling you it will be sunny all day, then you probably won’t have cloudy conditions. This time, the forecast was saying it would be rainy all day, so I figured I would have good conditions all day and it should be a good day to go over on this mega trip. I did not have any rain really, except driving over there in the morning, and then driving back at night.

Anyway, back to Stornetta Falls. It was about 2:30PM when I arrived at the trailhead. The hike to the falls is short and easy, and involves going through a field with plenty of the dreaded cow beasts again. You know I love cows. But none of them charged at me to knock me off the cliffs and into the ocean. In fact, they pretty much ignored me. Go figure. In very short order, I arrived at a waterfall. This could not be Stornetta! It was not, though it did also drop into the ocean, but was probably only about 10 feet high. I continued on along the cliffs overlooking the beautiful ocean. The ocean was churning and I saw ocean waterfalls in the distance as waves crashed over rocks with great consistency. As I approached the stream at Stornetta Falls, I realized I would have to cross it. I did not want to get my feet wet, and I had no desire to take off my boots and wade across. What is the alternative? Jumping across the stream of course! Hmm, well I found a spot that seemed jumpable. Remember now, that I still have a bad ankle. It is much better, but is still not 100 percent healed. I would have to jump off on my bad ankle, and land on my good one. This is not something that is really of the smart variety. I succeeded with only a small protest from my bad ankle (and a slightly larger protest on the return back). But I did somehow manage to break my hiking pole as I jumped across. Argh.

Stornetta Falls is in an incredibly beautiful setting. It drops off at one end of a U shaped cove. The best view requires hiking around the cove to the other side so you are right across from the falls. A seagull guarded my backpack with interest as I went down to the end of the cliff and took photos of the waterfall. Thank you Mr. Seagull, and sorry I did not have any food in my pack for you. The waterfall is only 19 ft. high. I have seen reports saying it is 50 feet. Not even close. Still though, it is definitely a pretty waterfall, and even better because it drops right into the ocean. The Point Arena lighthouse can be seen in the distance from the middle of the cove, and I found this composition with the lighthouse in the background. It is incredible.

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.

This week is looking pretty good. By the end of it, we could have 4 or 5 feet of snow in Tahoe, and double that in northern California maybe. About time, I say.

But four feet of snow is nowhere near enough. As I drove up to Tahoe on Saturday, looking for some snow to play in, I did not find very much. At Kyburz, where that huge snow measuring stick is that goes up to 12 feet high (you know what I mean, if you have driven by it), it was measuring a big whopping zero. I essentially did not see any snow until 6500 ft. elevation. I was initially hoping to find a nice snowy waterfall, and I was beginning to wonder if I would find any snow at the falls at all.

Upper Glen Alpine Falls was my destination. I was here in the winter a couple seasons ago, and it was completely buried in the snow and could not be seen at all. I was pretty sure that would not be the case this time around. The road on Fallen Leaf Road is gated two miles in during the winter, so that means you have to hike the remaining three miles along the road, and then it is an additional mile to the falls. I did not want to hike that three miles, so I brought my bike along, which would make that section go by very quickly. My calculations showed that the sun would be hitting the falls very early, around 7AM (30 minutes after sunrise), so I tried to arrive very early. It was still dark, but it was 15 minutes later than I wanted to be. I packed everything onto my bike as quickly as possible and set off down the road. I purposely left my snowshoes in the car, as I did not think they would be necessary with so little snow. It was 20 degrees outside, but I was warm and toasty in the brand new winter jacket (and much needed) I just bought on sale at REI.

Along the road, I noticed that the almost full moon was setting beside Mt. Tallac with a beautiful reflection in Fallen Leaf Lake. Well, I just had to stop to take a picture of that! (and I will share that photo soon). That took another 15 minutes, and it was now almost sunrise. I would have very little time to play with but I figured I could still get to the waterfall in time. At the end of the road, I locked up my bike to a tree, changed into my winter boots, and set off up the path. There was a beaten track through the snow from other people all the way to the Desolation Wilderness trailhead (the spot where you would drive to in the summer), so the going was very easy. But at the trailhead, the tracks stopped there. No one had gone any further up the trail, so I had to beat my own path. It was only a half mile to the falls from here, and should be easy because there was not much snow, right? Well, it started off easily enough, but as I got further in, the snow got deeper. It was now 3 to 4 feet deep in places, and softer as well, not hard packed. Maybe I should have brought my snow shoes after all! Indeed I should have, but I just trudged through the snow, more slowly now, but I kept going steadily enough. It was not very far to the falls.

As I approached the waterfall, I could see the sun was already on it. It was only 7AM, but I was already too late. But God does provide! I made my way down to the bottom of the falls, and as I did so, clouds rolled over in front of the sun. I now had plenty of time to photograph the waterfall. Thank you Lord! It was an awesome morning at Upper Glen Alpine Falls. The snow around the waterfall was really nice, and it was flowing a lot more than it was when I was here in the Fall. That is because all that snow we received last week is already melting. I took my time, enjoyed the view of the waterfall, then hiked back down to photograph the lower falls. The bike ride back to the car was much more tiring, as it is more uphill; I am sure out of biking shape. I was quite tired by the time I got back to the car. Time to go get some breakfast in Tahoe. Phew.