Leon Turnbull Photography

Top tier of Upper Palisade Creek Falls.

“And the sixth is where the emerald fairies play in the summer.” (from Ode to NFAR – by Leon Turnbull)

It was very cold during the night; it was not freezing but I’m sure it was much less than 40 degrees. I had to wear all the clothes I had brought, and I did not sleep very well. I did survive the night, however. The outside of my sleeping bag was wet in the morning, not a good thing, but at least it was not wet on the inside. That would have been horrible.

I was also hacking like a mad man all night long (pun intended). I had a cold, which started before I left on this trip. I was determined not to abandon my big backpacking trip just because of a little thing such as sickness. I already missed a couple weeks of hiking this year due to sickness. Now I was sick again just before my trip! Thank you to my dear son and daughter for giving me another cold! It has actually been a very rough spring in the Turnbull household. It seems that we have been constantly sick this year. Anyway, the good news is that the bears and mountain lions would not want to come anywhere near me for fear of catching my cold. I’m kidding. Sort of. I’m sure they would have run far away from my tent if they heard me hacking in the night.

I got up early. My plan was to explore further up Palisade Creek. There are three new waterfalls up there I wanted to try to reach. I was not very successful. The first one at least I could get a view of. It was about 30 ft. high. However, I could only see it from the top of a cliff. There was no way down to the bottom of it from the cliff, and approaching the falls from along the creek was far too brushy. The other two falls were completely inaccessible. I got a glimpse of them from a long way off, but the terrain was far too steep and cliffy to get any closer.

Bummed, I returned to camp, had coffee and breakfast, then packed up my gear. From here, it is a short hike down to the river. All easy, all downhill. I left my snowshoes beside the trail before the big downhill section started. I would certainly not need them 1000 ft. lower at the river. Hopefully, the bears would not steal them. No humans would be down here, that is for certain.

The views on this trail are amazing. In the distance I could see majestic Snow Mountain, still a lot of snow on it, and East Snow Mountain Falls dropping off it. This is the second highest waterfall in California, at 2200 ft. high, second only to Yosemite Falls. I measured this waterfall myself when I was down here in 2006 with my brother-in-law.

Down at the North Fork American River, Palisade Falls was roaring (pictured here). In 2006, the flow downstream at the North Fork Dam was about 600 cfs. This weekend it was about 1400 cfs, more than twice the volume. It was amazing. I have wanted to see these waterfalls at high flow for a long time, and now I have. The North Fork American River canyon is just so incredibly beautiful.

I went down to the same campsite where my brother-in-law and I camped before. I found the place much changed, and not for the better. I was visibly upset. There was a lot of garbage down here, left by previous campers. There was a big old blue tarp, and a large heavy grill left on the fire pit, not to mention a number of smaller things. This is what you call “leave no trace”??? If you can carry a big blue tarp and heavy grill down to the river, then you sure better be able to carry it back up. This is appalling in my opinion. Even creating large fire pits where there was previously nothing is completely irresponsible (and I saw quite a few big fire pits down here – all over the area – including a ginormous one). Palisade Falls used to be a very remote place, accessible to only a few hardy souls. Lately, however, it has become much more popular with certain groups, and I wonder that it is these groups that have contributed to trashing this beautiful area. I picked up some of the garbage and put it in my pack to carry up later. I did not pick up the tarp or grill, but even so, picking up this garbage would make my pack uncomfortably heavy for the long hike out of the canyon. Oh well, I guess I should have expected it.

I setup camp, ate lunch, and relaxed. I had wanted to try going down river to Petroglyph Falls again, but I did not have enough time. I was a bit sad about that, and I wish I could have stayed a third night down here, but it was not in the cards. I did walk down the river for a bit, and I found it very slow going, mostly due to the high flow and melting snow into the river along very slippery banks. I did not get very far. So anyhow, back to camp. I took photos of Lower Palisade Creek Falls and Palisade Falls in the evening, many photos from different angles were taken. The high flow limits the photographic possibilities for sure. You want to get right down to the river level? Not a chance of that happening. At first I had thought that the emerald fairies only play here in the summer (and if you have ever been here in the summer, it is easy to see them). But I was wrong. The emerald fairies play here in the spring as well. You can see them in my photo. Can you not?

In the past week, there was one more foot of new snow fallen. It was the last storm of the winter (although it is not winter anymore). I had hoped it would have all melted by the weekend, but not so. Since it was fresh, it was not packed, and the snow was soft and not good to walk on without snow shoes. I knew I would need my snow shoes on this backpacking trip, and therefore I did pack them. Since the first part of the hike is road walking, I carried them. This added 3.5 pounds of weight to my pack. Not a fun thing, but it was easier walking on the road in hiking boots than snow shoes. At least it was downhill.

Once I got off the road, I put the snowshoes on since the snow was softer and I was sinking in. I hoped I could ditch them long before I got down to the river, thinking that I would be leaving the snow far behind, as it is a 1500 ft. descent. However, there was much more snow than expected, and it continued ALL THE WAY down to river level. When I got to the top of a certain gully (I could not wear them going down the gully), I almost left them there. Surely there would not be any snow at the bottom of the gully, but reluctantly I decided to carry them down, and it’s a good thing. There was a lot of snow at the bottom of the gully, and it was much deeper than at the top. Snow shoes were an absolute necessity.

There was one big creek crossing, but it was not horribly big and I was not expecting it to be uncross-able. I put on my water shoes and it was definitely flowing swift and very cold, but not dangerous at all. Coming back in a couple days could be a different story. It was supposed to warm up quickly this weekend, and that meant more snow would be melting into the creek. I was not concerned about it. However…

There was one section of the hike I was concerned about: It was a potentially very dangerous area, with steep drop-offs down into the raging river below. Fortunately, by this point in the hike, all the snow was gone. If there was snow, I would not have been able to continue past this section. With no snow or wet slippery rock, it was pretty easy.

It was a very long and difficult hike, but after 5.5 hours of slow slogging, I finally made it to my camp at Upper Palisade Creek Falls in the early afternoon. This waterfall is hidden off the main trail, but you can practically see it from the main trail (in fact, you can see it from the main trail), and it is very easy to get to. I don’t know why I never noticed it when I was down here before, and I thank my friend Mike for telling me about this one. It is a magnificent waterfall, dropping in two tiers, 80 ft. and 30 ft., and it is a perfect place to camp, right beside the falls. I had a terrific evening enjoying the waterfall and photographing it. However, it would be a very cold night…

This weekend took me back to Serena Creek Falls. I’ve been to these waterfalls before but … it’s been awhile, and I wanted to come back here again. I also wanted to scout out the area for an upcoming trip in a few weeks. How much snow was up there? I was not sure. Would I need snowshoes? No clue. Where was I going to park for this upcoming weekend trip? I had an idea but again, I was not sure. So Serena Creek Falls seemed like a good place to go while I did these scouting things as well.

I arrived at the trailhead. There was at least 2 feet of snow on the ground here. That is not a lot, really. I thought there would be quite a bit more than this. It was very hard packed. I determined that I would not need my snowshoes on the hike, and so I left them in the car as I hiked down the road on the hard packed snow.

When I reached the point where I needed to get off the road and head towards to the creek, I began to wonder if it was a mistake leaving my snowshoes. In the trees, the snow was softer. There were some potentially big holes. I did not want to break my ankle on this hike! I figured it could be quite dangerous down near the creek with big holes and rocky and very steep terrain. Even with snowshoes, it could be a problem.

I did not posthole even once as I hiked down towards the creek (well, maybe once). There were many tracks back on the road, as this is a popular area for skiing, snowshoeing, and snowmobiling, but there were no tracks going to the falls. No doubt I am the first person to visit the waterfalls this year. When I got to the top of the waterfall, which is where I would need to descend the very steep hill, I found no snow at all! With no snow, it was actually very easy getting down to the bottom of both waterfalls. I did not need my snowshoes after all.

At the Lower Falls (pictured here), I knew I would have to get in the creek and over towards the middle of the creek to take photos. There was a good strong flow in the creek, and of course it was icy cold, but I was able to get to the middle. I could not get all the way over to the other side, however, so I took my photos standing in the middle. My toes froze off, but I think it was worth it. Lower Serena Creek Falls is a beauty.

As of April 1, the rainfall is at 80% of normal (northern CA), 79% (Central CA), 64% (South). The snowpack is at 47% of normal (northern Sierra), 64% (Central Sierra), 55% (Southern Sierra). March was the fifth wettest March on record, thanks to three very big storms. With those 3 storms, we went up from about 20% snow pack to 50% snow pack.

So was it a true Miracle March, as many people are saying? I would say yes and no. First and foremost, I thank and praise God for all the rain we received in March. Many people were praying for rain, and He answered that prayer. The snow pack more than doubled in one month, as did the overall rainfall. It would have been very depressing indeed without that March rain. Nonetheless, overall, a 50% snow pack is still very dismal and awful. The good news is there is rain continuing into April. This rain will probably bring us up close to 100% of normal for precipitation, but it will not add much to the snow pack, unfortunately.

All right, on to the waterfalls …

I have been sick recently and I have not been out hiking much. Also, I just had dental surgery and now I am out of commission for this weekend in recovery. However, in between those things, I did manage to get in one new visit to an old friend. The Devil is most certainly NOT my friend. However, his waterfall is not too shabby, mostly because it is very easy to get to. Except for that darn road.

I have not been down here since the storm damage of 2017. The road was closed for most of last winter, and only opened again in the summer. I was dreading the drive down. It was an awful road before. What would it be like now? It seemed maybe a slight bit narrower and a slight bit rougher on the way down. Or was that just my imagination? It was probably the latter, I suppose. The main thing I hate about the road is that it is so narrow, unfathomably narrow in some spots, with horrendous dropoffs. If any cars are coming in the opposite direction, there is no way to pass. Thankfully, I saw no one.

However …on the other side of the river, the half mile up to Devils Falls, the road was most certainly much worse. There are huge ruts in the road now where there was none before. A four wheel drive seems a necessity now.

In addition to seeing Devil’s Falls, I also tried to get to the upper falls, and also down to Shirttail Falls. When I did those hikes before, it was shortly after the fire, and pretty easy to get to them. No brush, no poison oak. Now the brush is back and the poison oak is back. In force. The poison oak was humongous. I did NOT want to get into any oak. It was not worth it. I decided to turn around. I finished photographing Devil’s, then drove went back up the mountain. There was a big storm coming in, and it was good to get off that crazy road before it all started.