Leon Turnbull Photography

(The title is not a political statement – in case you were wondering – ha ha)

From the first waterfall on Jones Fork Silver Creek, I continued cross country up to Lower Gertrude Lake Falls. I have been to this waterfall before, but the light was horrible, and I was hoping *this time* to arrive in time for good lighting. However, I was 30 minutes late getting to that first waterfall. It was not looking good for the second one either.

The Desolation Wilderness is a very special place. One of the best things about it that makes it so special is the wide open granite terrain that one can hike cross country on. No trails. Beautiful mountain scenery. The fast rushing creek flowing near by. It is spectacular. Please tell me you have done this in the Desolation Wilderness. Of course, you also have that deathly thick manzanita brush but that is a story for another day. I did not have any of that awful stuff in this area. It was beautiful and awesome, and I made good time up to Lower Gertrude Lake Falls, but I still did not make up any of that lost time, and I was 30 minutes late arriving at the falls. The sun was already shining onto the upper section of the falls and down into the canyon, however the lower section was still in shade, so I setup my tripod behind a big tree to block out the sun and took some photos. At least the light was much better than the last time I was here. The creek was also flowing fairly well. Normally, it would be pretty much dry at this time of year, but thanks to all that rain and now some snow melting, voila, we have waterfall.

After this, I made my big mistake. I should have just called it an easy day and hiked back to Wrights Lake from here. Rong! Instead, I decided to hike up to Maud Lake and beyond, having never been up there before, and hoping to perhaps find another waterfall. First, I had to cross the creek again (the 3rd out of 4 crossings on this day), and this time it ended up being tough going, as there was quite a bit of brush to hack through. I eventually made my way up to the Maud Lake trail. From there, the going was easier up to the lake. There was now snow on the ground, though not much, and I was the first one heading up to Maud Lake since last week’s storm, and thus had to break ground for all the others that would be following me on this day (and there were plenty). Maud Lake was pretty, but it was the beyond part that got far too tough for me, and I eventually called it. I was very tired, much more hiking then I had initially intended to do, and I still had to hike all the way back. It was also very warm, and I was not expecting that. It was 26 degrees when I started, now it felt like summer. I even got sunburned on the hike back to the car. Lovely.

Surprisingly, I met quite a few backpackers going up the trail, heading up the pass to Lake Lois and beyond. I got to thinking about this … Backpacking in November, camping in snow, with temperatures at around 20 degrees. I’m really not sure about that extreme cold at night, but if I could handle that somehow, then I think it would be awesome. Especially this year, with the water we had in October. Normally, the waterfalls are not flowing at this time of year, but this year they are, and with not much snow yet, the passes are still open. What an awesome trip these guys would have, but 20 degrees, I just don’t know about that. Brrr!

The last few weeks my hikes have just been very hard, going down to the bottom of steep, deep, crazy canyons. Just plain hard. This week I wanted to just do something easier. Well, that was the plan anyway.

So I drove up to Wrights Lake. That should be an easy hike, right? No steep crazy canyons up there, right? With not much snow yet, the road is still open, but it was definitely cold and icy. It was 26° when I started the hike an hour before sunrise in the dark.

I figured it would take about an hour to get to the first waterfall. There was lots of water flowing everywhere, and a lot of swamps to negotiate. You would not expect to see this in November, but we did have the most rain in October since 1962. Anyway, all was going well … Until I got to the creek crossing. The creek was flowing deep and strong, and I could see no way to cross, plus it was also very brushy getting down to it. Finally, I found a spot and was able to rock hop and wade across the creek, but it took quite awhile and now I was late, about 30 minutes late getting to the waterfall. When I got there I realized that in order to get in a position to photograph the waterfall, I had to wade across the creek again. I was on the wrong side. Sigh.

It was all worth it though. This waterfall is not a big one, 20 feet high exactly, and just barely qualifies for inclusion on my website, but it is a highly interesting waterfall shooting out in multiple segments. This segment shown here was the most interesting one, tucked away in a narrow channel. It was very cool.

After this, I had to hike another mile and a half cross country to the next waterfall. The sun was already up now. Would I get there in time?

This was the second falls I found last weekend. This is 63 ft. high. Sweet.

Today (Saturday) was probably the last day of the year that you will be able to get into most of the High Country until spring. We have had record rainfall this October in northern California, I think it may end up being the most rain we have had for October in over 66 years, dating back to 1950 and beyond, but most of that has come down as rain in the mountains, not snow. So that means the waterfalls are all flowing very well for now, but we need that snow pack. Tomorrow we are finally getting snow in the mountains, and that means most of the roads will be snowed in and no longer accessible. I tried to take advantage of this final day.

Unfortunately, my Plan A backfired, because although there was not any snow, there were huge mud puddle pits, due to all the rain. I kinda suspected this might be the case, and I did not want to drive through them and risk getting stuck in the mud. So onto Plan B.

The Plan B hike was not a particularly difficult hike, and yet no one has probably ever been to this waterfall before, or even knows about it. I did not see any evidence that anyone had ever been down here before, though it is illogical that no one has seen it. In any case, mine is the first documentation of this magnificent waterfall. It is 122 ft. high, and it is a spectacular cascade.

I initially hoped to get down to the bottom of it, but it was very steep, and worse than that, it was extremely brushy. The rocks were wet and slick as ice. I was soaking wet from trampling through the brush and swamps thus far, and going any further down would have been very bad. I decided to attempt to find a view from the top of the ridge instead. I wasn’t sure that I would be able to find one, but I got lucky. I worked my way down through the brush, and towards the end of the ridge, and I found a superb view of the falls. I dared not go any further to the end, that would have been extremely stupid. The rock sloped down from here and over a 200 or so ft. cliff. Being that it was so slick, I would have certainly slid right off and over the cliff. I have no doubt about that. So obviously, I stayed safe. Good idea, madman.

Well the hike back up to the car was all right, but my back was hurting by the end of it. It has not been hurting in a long while, so I don’t know what is up with it. Same pack weight as last week, and an easier hike to boot. Ugh. I did not have any rain all day long, and the weather was good, but I was still wet and cold from trampling through the brush and swamps. It was a very good day.

So … this was a killer tough hike … but very awesome.

Going back into that nefarious canyon (you know the one – see my previous post Thorn In My Side) before it is closed off for winter, I have wanted to try to get down to this spot for awhile now, but I knew it would be tough. I had to give it a shot.

The descent is about 1200 ft. in less than a mile. If that doesn’t give you the willies, I don’t know what will. Oh perhaps the cliffs will. Yeah we had some of those.

It was actually more than 1200 ft. too, because I took a couple detours. The first detour was to Burnett Canyon. I was 95 percent sure that I would not be able to get to this one. Nonetheless, I had to try, right? And yeah I got down to the top of the falls, but then it was nothing but cliff. No way to get any further along to see the waterfall. Not even a small view of it. Well that was not unexpected, was it, so I scrambled back up the mountain. That detour was probably a couple hundred feet extra.

There is a rope descending down the last 500 ft. to the bottom of the canyon. Believe me, you need to use it the entire way. It is incredibly steep and very difficult. I went down quite a distance. However, when I came to the section where the rope descends along the edge of a 200 ft. cliff dropoff with a very steep descent along the top of it, I balked. I am really freaked out about stuff like this. I like to live. So I thought, I will have to call it quits, and back up the mountain I went. That was probably another 250 ft. for that detour.

When I got back up to the top, I looked at my map. Perhaps there was another way down that was not so crazy. And yeah, actually, maybe there was. It was not too late, I thought I may as well try it. The descent was steep for sure, but it was not cliffy and I did not need my rope. Well I take that back. It did get cliffy near the bottom, and I did need to use my rope for a very short section. But definitely not a 500 ft. long section. I found a way through the cliffs, and got a glimpse of a couple waterfalls. I was giddy.

The first one I wanted to see was Lower Burnett Canyon, but when I finally got to the bottom , I found there was no way to get to that falls. The cliffs descended right to river level on both sides of the river. This was the one out of the three waterfalls that I thought for sure I would be able to see. Nothing doing. This was unexpected, and a bummer. But there was still the other one.

I know of only one other person who has been down here before. Clearly, with that rope being there, others obviously have been down. I have only seen one photo, though, and his photo made this waterfall seem to be very small, 10-15 ft. high at most. Google Earth also seems to think this waterfall is only 15 or so, maybe 20 ft. max. So really, this one was very low priority for me, and I did not even have it on my website, thinking it less than 20 ft. high. Does my photo make it seem this is a small waterfall as well? It is actually 51 ft. high, about 3 times higher than what I was anticipating, and it is a drop dead gorgeous straight drop into a magnificent plunge pool. Wow what an amazing waterfall. It was very unexpected.

I would love to come back here again, but I don’t know if I will, considering how difficult it was. I climbed 500 ft. back up the mountain, and nearly bonked. I still had another 700 ft. to climb too, but I rested, ate some lunch, and eventually got back up to my car. It was an amazing day in that nefarious canyon.