Leon Turnbull Photography

Codfish Creek Falls is not one I would normally go to on my own for a number of reasons. I have been to it many times before and usually I like going to new stuff. But on Sunday afternoon I wanted an easy hike that our whole family could go to and Codfish definitely qualifies.

I tried to go out to a waterfall on Saturday. With four inches or so of new rain in the foothills I figured Canyon Creek at Gold Run would be perfect. And it almost was. I like to call Canyon Creek, Tick City because it is infested with the little buggers in the spring. I once had to brush off about fifty ticks clinging to me after hiking about a mile down the canyon. I figured this trip would be no different. It is early in the season but the ticks are out already due to the warm weather and lack of precip this year. Out in force. I have heard it is the worst season for ticks perhaps ever (and I know that the last two seasons have been very awful). However, I did have some good news. This last storm brought low snow, about a foot to Gold Run. All the ticks were buried under it, making my hike more difficult but much more pleasant with no ticks. Unfortunately it also brought one more difficulty: that darn narrow freaky bridge crossing over Canyon Creek just above the first waterfall. As it was very early in the morning and very cold, the bridge was a skating rink, very icy, and very dangerous to cross. One slip and I would have plunged into the cold fast rushing creek below. Not good. I decided to turn back. A wise decision but it made me very disappointed.

So that is why I wanted to go out on Sunday. I needed to at least get to one waterfall this weekend even if it is one I’ve been to before. My family has been sick and didn’t really want to go, especially my daughter, but I managed to talk them into it and everyone had a really nice time.

There was a lot of people out on the trail to Codfish even though it was late on Sunday afternoon. This is another reason I don’t like to come here anymore and if I do it would be at sunrise before anyone else is out and about. Once we got to the falls I had to wait quite awhile for everyone and their dog to clear out of the way so I could have a view of the falls with no one in the way. In the meantime the kids had fun throwing plenty of rocks into the creek. I was able to easily get right into the creek to take this photo. After an inch or more of recent rain here I thought the creek would have quite a bit more flow on it. Not so.

The last reason I may not come here much in the future, though, is a new one: there is now a $10 fee to park here! What the heck? You have to now pay ten dollars to go on a one hour hike?? Let’s be honest folks, this is totally ridiculous. And let’s just consider how awful the access road down to the river is, which requires a high clearance vehicle to drive on, and the facilities consist of one small dirty outhouse. So what is my fee going towards anyway? I would not likely mind to pay perhaps a $5 fee (at most) but $10 for a one hour hike is way way over the top. Nuff said.

After taking a couple weeks off, my ankle finally feels better. Not 100 percent yet for sure, but more than enough that I feel I can do some serious hiking again. Off trail hiking. To remote, tough to get to waterfalls. Down in the LA area, I went to a couple easy ones. Not a problem for my healing ankle. Walking around Disneyland for four days I survived. The worst part of that was just the fact that you are walking around on pavement all day. Walking on pavement is many times worse than walking on dirt trails. My feet were in agony by the end of that. But my ankle was fine. Last weekend, I wanted to get out hiking, but instead took the weekend off. This weekend, though, I definitely wanted to get back on the hiking grid. And I did.

The destination was to be a new waterfall for me: Upper Marble Creek Falls. I was not sure about access to this waterfall, and I had heard it was difficult, cliffy, and with abundant poison oak. I also expected to find many ticks, as this year is supposedly the worst in ages (and the last two years have been incredibly awful for ticks). I decided to take my dog along on this hike. Normally on a hike like this I would not take her, because I do not know the terrain, and I could easily get to a place where she would not be able to go any further. But she is getting older, and probably does not have too many hiking years left in her, and I was feeling like she needs to have as much fun now as she possibly can. So I took her along. And of course, that made her very happy.

If there were a lot of ticks though, the hike would not last long for either of us. I was watching very closely but I saw none of the little buggers all day long. I’m not sure why, but I suspect it may have been much too cold for them. Poison oak though was a different matter. There was plenty of that and more. Doh.

My initial thought on this waterfall was to approach it from above. Looking at a map that seems to be the quickest route. Unfortunately it is all private property above the falls, and I did not see any way to get to it without crossing through anyone’s backyard. Not wanting to give up, I looked at my map again, and saw a possible route from below. A longer route but maybe that would not be private, and as I found out it was not. Yeah. We parked the car and walked across a wide open field over to the creek drainage. From there, we started up towards the falls, and that is where we encountered all the oak, but the going was not too bad otherwise. As we got closer to the falls, the terrain got a bit rougher and steeper, but again, not too bad. I just had to be careful with my ankle is all. I could hear the waterfall as we approached, but I could not see any water in the creek downstream. Weird, I thought. When we arrived at the falls I found out why. At the base of the falls, the water disappeared underground. It must  re-emerge somewhere, but I’m not sure where. If there was more water flowing, it obviously would not all go underground, but there was not a lot of water flowing right now. It should be spectacular right now, of course, but our very dry winter has taken that away. It was still a very lovely waterfall though, even at low water flows, dropping an amazing 77 ft. into a tight narrow gorge. At high flows it would be an amazing spot to be, but also likely very difficult to photograph if there was a lot of spray. I’m quite certain I will return here when the waterfall is flowing greater. It was not difficult to get to, the only tough part was all the poison oak.

On the way back across the fields, I noticed from a long way off a couple dogs on the other side of the field. No owners. No houses nearby. They saw us coming, and just waited beside my car for us to come. They knew we were coming back that way. They were just puppies, and incredibly friendly little guys, jumping all over us when we got there. We eventually managed to escape them, and got back in the car, at which time they continued to play with each other, rolling around in the grass. Fun stuff.

After this hike, we went on a second hike in the area, looking for a second waterfall. I found it, a very big one, but it was surrounded by huge cliffs on each side of it, and the waterfall offered up no views of itself. I searched for one in vain. There must be a way to see this one. I will definitely be looking for a way to get back to this one.

A surprise rain in Southern California, and it got the waterfalls down there trickling.

We were down vacationing at Disneyland for the week. My initial plan on going to Disneyland in February was that I figured I could take a couple days and go waterfallin’ while we were down there. I had not yet been to any SoCal waterfalls, and I was really hoping to add to my collection this year. God had other plans, however. No rain in December and January meant the waterfalls were bone dry. I did not even take any of my maps or GPS down to SoCal, figuring it would be completely pointless to try going to any waterfalls. Instead, we took a side trip first to Joshua Tree National Park, then continued on over to Disneyland. It would have been pointless for sure. but then the surprise rain came.

It was not much rain, about an inch at the most. But I thought, what the hey, maybe the creeks got enough water in them to make a waterfallin hike worthwhile. So I quickly planned out a couple easy waterfalls to hike to the next morning.

I got up super early. I did not want to deal with any traffic through Los Angeles. Even at 5AM, there was a ton of traffic on the road. This should not have surprised me, but it did. Yikes, that is crazy, but at least the traffic was moving along quickly. It was still dark when I arrived at the trailhead to Sturtevant Falls, and I started my hike down to the waterfall, a steep descent along a paved road. Once down at the bottom of the canyon I began to have second thoughts. There was not a lot of water flowing in the creek. I continued on up to the falls. The flow was about what I expected, but I was certainly hoping for more. Nonetheless, Sturtevant Falls is a pretty 40 ft. high waterfall, and fortunately it does not need a lot of water flow to look nice.

I finished taking my photos quickly because there was a second waterfall I wanted to get to before the sun got too high. As I was finishing my last shot, a group of Japanese men came up the trail behind me to the falls. What? I was a bit shocked to see anyone out on the trail so early, and especially on a week day. If this was northern California, there would certainly be no one out so early (not counting Yosemite of course). On the hike back, I saw even more hikers coming up the trail. I guess that is just the way things are in Los Angeles but I prefer having my waterfalls all to myself, which is one reason why I always get to them so early in the morning.

On Saturday we headed up to Chico for lunch to celebrate my wife’s birthday with the rest of the family. We went to La Hacienda, or what I like to call La Barfienda, since I have never had a good meal here, and it is the absolute worst Mexican restaurant that I have been to. However, for some strange reason, my wife and everyone else really likes this restaurant, and since it was my wife’s choice, well, guess where we went? I managed to find something edible on the menu this time, however, so I can’t complain too much.

Afterwards, as per a prior agreement I had made with Tara, I left everyone in Chico and drove back down to Hwy 70 and into the Feather River Canyon to check out some waterfalls. It could be my last waterfall trip for awhile as there is now no more rain in the long range forecast. We seem to be looking at a drought year here now for sure, which I am rather depressed about at the moment. It is very hard to keep up hope after such a very dry winter thus far.

Anyway, my first stop was Elephant Butte, where I found quite a large crowd of people here, not waterfallin but rock climbing. I could see the waterfall from the road, and I could also see that it was not flowing much. It would be pointless to try to shoot it, so I continued to Jackass Creek. This one was flowing much better, and I was hoping to get down to it, but when I arrived I could see it was very steep and brushy. With a good ankle, I could have done it, but it would be foolish to do it right now. Did I mention that my son gave me a good kick (accidentally of course) in the ankle at lunch? Oooh, did that ever hurt. The ankle is fine now if you do not touch it, but just the slightest touch is quite painful (and that kick was a lot more than a slight touch).

So Jackass Creek was strike two. I had one last chance for a good waterfall before I had to get back to Chico to pick up my family. I have been to Bear Ranch Creek Falls before, and I knew it was an easy hike. Only about a mile long, and it is all on a defined trail. I had no troubles hiking up to it and my ankle was perfectly fine. I realized after this hike that I can hike anywhere now as long as I stay on trail. Once I get off trail, the terrain gets much steeper, and much rockier, and it is just too difficult and dangerous with a bad ankle. So I just need to do all my waterfallin’ on established trails until my ankle heals completely. The trouble is that pretty much all the waterfalls on my list to see this year are off trail. Perhaps it is good (a blessing in disguise?) that I hurt my ankle in a drought year (if I had hurt it last year for instance, I would have killed myself! – just kiddin – sort of).

Anyway, Bear Ranch Creek Falls is a really nice 81 ft. high drop, and as I said, it is very easy to get to. In high water, it is next to impossible to get a photo of it from this location, as there is so much mist here. In low water flows, like it is now, it is actually quite a lot nicer and a lot easier to photograph.

After I got back to Chico we drove down to Oroville for dinner at Jakes Burgers. Mmmm, now that is so much better than La Barfienda. LOL.

The first big rains of the season came this weekend. It was enough rain to get the waterfalls rolling again. Unfortunately, it is not looking very good for the long term, as the long range forecast is showing more dry weather for the next couple weeks. Just when I thought things were finally turning around, now we are going back to square one again, perhaps.

Well, you know me. When it rains, it is time for me to get out waterfallin. The problem right now is my badly sprained ankle, which was the only thing preventing me from getting out hiking. The solution: Go to a roadside waterfall of course. I needed something extremely easy to go to, so Devil’s Falls was the ticket for me this weekend.

I arrived at Devil’s Falls first thing Sunday morning. It was not raining, though more was expected later in the morning. The waterfall was flowing ok, not amazingly great, but it was just about exactly as I expected it to be flowing. So that was good. In order to photograph the waterfall, though, I soon realized that I needed to cross the creek for the best composition. Hmm, with my ankle as it was, I was definitely hoping to avoid this. But there was no way around it, so I took off my hiking shoes and donned my water shoes, putting the shoe over my ankle brace, and I carefully, and doubly carefully, crossed the creek, not wanting to make any sort of slippage on the rocks. I made it over without incident, and setup my tripod in the stream and took my photos.

I tried something a little different with this shot. The dilemma with photographing a shot like this is to try to get everything in the frame in perfect focus. Usually, your foreground (the rocks) is either going to be out of focus or your background will be slightly out of focus (the waterfall). Normally I use something called hyperfocal distance to get the best focused image possible, but it is not a perfect method. This time I tried a different approach. I took two shots, one focused on the foreground, the second focused on the background, and then combined the two in Photoshop. This way, everything is in sharp focus. It worked, and I was really quite pleased with the result. This would not work in all situations, but I think I will be doing this more often in the future.

After Devil’s Falls, I debated long and hard about going down to Shirttail Falls. I really really wanted to. But it is not such an easy one to get to. It is a very steep descent down to the creek, and it looked quite slippery with the wet ground. Though it is not hard to do with two working ankles, it is not so easy or smart with only one. In the end I took the smart option, and instead drove into McDonalds in Colfax to get breakfast and a coffee, before going to church to repent of my sin of going waterfallin’ with only one working ankle. Or was it to repent of going to “Devils” Falls on a Sunday? Something like that. I was quite happy, though, when I got back home. Thinking I would be in a lot of pain after going out in the morning, instead the ankle is doing much much better; going to a waterfall seemed to even help it! I might even be ready to go out hiking next weekend.