Leon Turnbull Photography

Had an awesome little father daughter hike with Nekoda this weekend. Though for her, she probably thought it was a big hike, not a little one.

After last weekend when I found a new waterfall but the creek was almost completely bone dry, I was a bit concerned about where to go this week. We still have not received enough rain here to get the waterfalls going yet.

American Canyon Creek Falls is one of those waterfalls that do not need a lot of water to look nice. It is very pretty even with only a little water flowing, and that makes it a great one to go to early in the waterfall season. Indeed, it is my go to waterfall in the early season, and one of my favorites of the little waterfalls in the area. It is incredibly gorgeous, tucked between the narrow rocks, and dumping into that incredible pool.

It was 37 degrees when we started the hike, just a bit on the nippy side, but we warmed up quickly as we descended the hill. The hike down was uneventful. There was a decent amount of water in American Canyon Creek, not much, but it was not dry. Hoboken Creek (which flows into the main creek) was dry, however. I have never seen that creek dry before. I was also disappointed at not seeing any newts along the trail. You always see plenty of these little guys on this trail. I hope they did not die off because of the drought. I was *not* disappointed at not seeing any ticks, however. I would be quite happy if they died off from the drought.

We got down to the falls, and crossed the creek in front of the waterfall. The rocks are very slippery and Nekoda’s boots have zero traction, so I was anxious that she not slip and fall into that big pool, but I managed to keep her from doing that. She sat down and waited patiently on the cold, wet rocks while I took my photos.

She did quite well on the hike back up the mountain. She said she almost died but not quite (I think that means it was not an overly difficult hike). We got back to the car and I could not find my keys anywhere. I always make sure to put my keys and wallet in the top pouch of my backpack. They were not there. My wallet was in my back pocket. How the heck did it get there? I could not find the keys. The car door was also unlocked! I was absolutely certain that I had locked the car before we started. What the heck is wrong with me today?!?! The keys were not in the car, though. I carefully unpacked everything from my backpack. I found them inside the rain cover that I put over my backpack, so in other words they were on the outside of my backpack, inside the rain cover. I could have lost them on the hike so easily. Whew that was lucky. Thank you God for not letting this bozo lose his keys down in that canyon.

I know this is not a good photo, but it is the best I could muster up today.

I went back to the East Fork of the North Fork of the North Fork American River (EFNFNFAR) again this weekend, trying to get to that mischievous and elusive upper falls. I found it, however it was not exactly what I hoped for.

I left the dirt road and headed straight down to the river. I was pretty certain I could come out right at the base of the waterfall, and have a perfect view of this crazy thing. Not quite. The descent was very brushy, in particular near the top, but I persevered and got through the worst of it. Continuing on down down down, 700 ft. down. It was not too steep or cliffy, and I soon began to think my grandiose plan was going to be perfection again. Then I came to the last 100 ft. of the descent. Cliff. Cliff. Everywhere a cliff. I made my way a bit further downstream, and found a non cliffy descent, it was steep, but I made it all the way down to the river. When I got down to the river, I saw a tripod head laying there. Gee, I thought, someone was down here before and dropped their tripod head. That is not very good at all. I looked a bit closer … that sure looks very similar to mine. Umm, wait that is mine! Crashing through the trees down that steep terrain, it must have come off the tripod and rolled on down ahead of me. Dang, I could have easily lost this and not even had a clue.

All righty then. I scooped it up and screwed it back on the tripod (securely). Now I just needed to work my way upriver to the falls, I really thought I was going to make it without any difficulty. I was almost there. I came around a corner, face to face with a deep and large pool, followed by a 15 ft. cascade, cliffs on both side, and no way to get up past it. The main waterfall was just out of sight, above this little cascade and around the next corner. I was skumped. And I was so darn close.

Well I went back, and then climbed up the mountain the way I came. I tried to get over closer to the waterfall above it. Maybe I could at least get a good view of it. Well here it is, I found a view. I was literally hanging on the edge of the cliff, looking down at the falls. I could not find any good place (or any place at all) to put my tripod, so I had to take the photo hand held. Not very good, but what can you do. It does not look very big from the photo, but the waterfall is really 30 ft. high or even more (I could not get an official measurement either).

It is a nice one, but man oh man is it so darn elusive. And absolutely impossible to get to, unless you are going to rapel down the river from above the falls. As you can see, it looks like someone has actually done this, and they left their rope hanging beside the falls. That quite annoys me and is very irresponsible to leave your rope out in a pristine canyon, so that the next person to come here (ie. me) has to look at your ugly rope beside a beautiful waterfall. Leave no trace, people! End rant. End story.

Well I was definitely pleased and surprised to find this waterfall, but it wasn’t my plan. Let me please explain my dear readers. Why, of course, you say…

There is, I believe, a bigger waterfall on this river, above this one. It is the East Fork of the North Fork of the North Fork of the American River. Say that three times fast. Or try EFNFNFAR for short. I first learned about these waterfalls from the late Russell Towle. I did not see any photos from him, but he indicated this lower falls was 10-15 ft. high. Later on, a friend of waterfallswest also got down to the lower falls, and not the upper one, and he also is crazier than I am (you can take that as a complement, Joey). However, his photo and description also made it seem that the lower falls was only 15 ft. high at the very most. So in a nutshell, I figured I could either try to get to the upper falls in which there was a 95 percent chance that I would fail miserably, or I could go to the very small lower falls. Neither of which appealed to me, and so I just did not even bother.

Well so this weekend rolls around and I have nothing better to do, so I determined to give this one a go, but my plan was to try to make that 5 percent happen and get to the upper falls. To be sure, years ago I have tried this waterfall before, but my route at that time was faulty. This time, the route was golden. I was very pleasantly surprised when I got down to the river to find it flowing halfway decent. There was about an inch of rain a week ago, but that is not much considering the drought, and I expected the river to be all but a trickle. How awesome that I might actually get to see some water flowing over a waterfall today. Well as it turned out, my routed put me too far to the left, it was too cliffy further to the right, and thus I ended up coming all the way down to the river below the lower falls. I figured I would at least try to get up to that small one, if nothing else. I had to cross the river (which fortunately was easy to do so, and then waded up the river towards the falls). Then I saw it ahead of me.

Wow! What a surprise, what a beauty! It is not a piddly little 10-15 footer, but a very gorgeous 32 ft. high gem. Magnificent! The cliffs on both sides of the river were completely massive, in fact it was just a teensy bit scary standing in the pool below the falls with the massive cliff looming above me. What if a big old bear above decided to knock a nice big old rock onto my head. That would not be very fun. Anyway, it certainly is a surprisingly nice waterfall, and the emerald green water was amazing. Will I try that upper falls again someday? Absolutely, and if we don’t get rain anytime soon, maybe it won’t be too long in the future.

I was quite excited to finally get to this 29 ft high charmer on the Little North Fork of the Middle Fork Feather River. It’s my first “new” waterfall of the season and I’m hoping for much more this winter and spring. Come on rain!

Now I knew there was a 30 footer on this river “somewhere” because I read about it from some kayakers but where it was exactly was a complete mystery and how to get there was even harder. It took three tries and much pondering of GE and topo maps until success finally presented itself.

The first time I had a vague idea where it might be but it turned out to be quite wrong. After that I realized where it was so I tried again and indeed I found it but I could not see it. In order to see it, it is necessary to cross the river and at that time the flow was much too high. Now I would try one last time. This time the river was lower but I was a bit worried it was still too high, especially after the recent rain that just happened. That rain would sure be nice for the waterfall but I somehow would need to cross that river. Well here I go.

It is a steep and difficult hike to get down to the falls. Much poison oak. Much steep cliffy terrain. When I finally got down to the river I could see it was flowing quite strong. I didn’t think I’d be able to cross it. Was this all a big wasted effort again? I had to try it. There were three steps I would need to make across the narrow torrent and avoid falling and being swept downstream, and probably over a few more waterfalls before I found myself in Lake Oroville. Well, it turned out to be not as bad as it looked. I was able to hold onto one rock, step out into the middle of the river, reach out and grab onto a rock on the other side, hold onto it for dear life and drag my other foot across through the torrent. Made it. I sure hoped I would be able to get back across though. Once on the other side I easily made my way up closer to the falls for a very sweet view and shot. It’s not a huge one, but sure is a beauty.

I took my shots and then hurried back across the river before it decided to rain any more and thus increase the flow in the river. That would certainly suck. I would probably be stuck down there until next summer. Bear meat and such.

My GPS was having troubles working down in that canyon, thus making it difficult to find my way back home. So I just went up. Up the mountain, back to the main trail which I was able to find with minimal GPS help. I got back to the car and as I was putting my bear spray away somehow the safety lock came off and I sprayed it all over my hands! I strongly suggest you not ever do this. I washed my hands off with the water in my water bottle as best I could, but I could not get it all off, especially under the fingernails. That stuff lingers on forever. And if you just happen to touch any other part of your body such as your face or eyes or any other certain parts, then it stings for a long time. Not that I did any of that, but just trust me, it stings. I can definitely see why the bears do not like it. Well I did make it home all right and got cleaned up, but now I just hope that I don’t get that dreaded poison oak itch.

500 miles. Would you drive that far to see a waterfall on a day hike? What if there is a four year drought and there are no other waterfalls flowing in the state and this was a special weekend release on the river?

Oh did I mention that you needed to get up at 3am in order to arrive in time for good lighting conditions for taking photos?

Well the waterfall madman would. And in fact … did.

PG&E was having a weekend recreational release on the Pit River for kayakers increasing the flow from 400 to about 800 cfs. I do like to take advantage of these releases as well, especially in the summer, and with double the flow it would be amazing. Wouldn’t it?

The last time I was here the flow was about 500 cfs so I expected it to be utterly spectacular today. It was also the hike I badly twisted my ankle on. The trail hasn’t gotten any better. I think worse, probably. It is steep and very crumbly with many loose rocks. I can easily see how I twisted it before. Needless to say, I was extra careful hiking down this year. No close calls, but I went down the wrong way, thinking it would be a better way, but it ended up worse with more loose rocks to fall on, more brush to smash through, and more poison oak to rub all over my body with. Later when I went back up the mountain, I went the correct way of course.

When I got down to the falls it did not seem to be turned up yet. According to the website, the release was supposed to happen at 8am so I expected to see a much increased flow very shortly. The flow was definitely more than last time I was here but it did not seem to be double the flow for my good pleasure. I could tell it was more because last time I could get right down up close to the falls but if I did that this time I’d be having to walk through the water and get my wet feet. I didn’t dare go down today. It would be suicide (literally) if suddenly the flow was increased any more. I stayed in a safe place, I took some photos and waited. And waited. And waited. As it turned out the flow was actually increased the previous night. When I finally realized it wasn’t going to be getting any better, I made the hike back out of the canyon.

I stopped for one last gander from the falls overlook. Some kayakers came up to look at the falls and I heard them say it’s HUGE and they were all quite excited about it. Well I guess they would know but it seemed to me to be closer to 500 than 800 cfs. I guess I was just thinking the falls would span the entire River at that flow, though the kayakers’ comments definitely made me a bit happier that I made such a long drive up here to see it. But next time I come here it will be 1200 cfs at least.