Leon Turnbull Photography

For a couple years now I’ve been wanting to get a sunrise shot of Phantom Falls with the wildflowers in bloom and the waterfall flowing and the sky in painted colors. The flowers on Table Mountain are going off the charts this year so I had heard, and with a few inches of rain this past week I knew Phantom Falls would be flowing fairly well, and on Wednesday it seemed the stars were going to align for me with the forecast calling for partly cloudy skies on Saturday. But hiking out to Phantom Falls for a full hour in the dark is not something I really wanted to do by myself, what with all the mountain lions and killer cows up there, so I called up my bud, Mountain Goat Rob to see if he wanted to come out with me on Saturday morning, and of course he was game. However, the very next day (Thursday) the weather forecast changed, and now it was going to be all sunny on Saturday, no clouds. Ugh, I hate when it does that! Well, two out of three ain’t bad. But then I heard from someone else that the water flow was way down and the flowers were also done. Zero out of three? Nonetheless, we kept to the plan. I was sure that Phantom Falls would still be flowing decent. I wasn’t sure about the clouds or the flowers.

We started our hike in the dark through plenty of mud. It actually seemed like there was a lot of water flowing on Table Mountain after all. There were no clouds anywhere of course. Sigh. As for the flowers? Well, it was too dark to see anything! We also saw no lions, and no cows either. I guess the cows were all still sleeping, as we saw plenty of them on the hike back later that morning. We arrived at Phantom Falls just prior to sunrise, crossed the creek and made our way to the other side where I knew there would be wildflowers overlooking the waterfall. By this time it wasn’t so dark, and we could clearly see that there were certainly a lot of flowers everywhere on Table Mountain, but we both thought it was still a bit too early in the season. In a couple weeks, I think they will be spectacular everywhere. If we get some more rain, perhaps the waterfalls will still be flowing. I might even go back there again this year. Who knows.

It was also quite breezy, and the flowers were twiddling around like crazy (as Rob put it), making photography extremely difficult. The breeze paused just a bit prior to the sun coming up, and I think I got a pretty decent shot here. Next time we just need the pretty clouds.

After this we went down to the bottom of Phantom Falls, to which I had never been before. One more thing now off the bucket list. It is so utterly cool and amazing down there. There is a path but it is a very steep one. Mountain Goat Rob, of course, made it down easily without any ropes, but I brought my ropes with me to be on the safe side. It is just a tad, a shade, a smidgeon on the steep side for me. I am sure I could have done without the rope, but it is better to be safe than sorry is what I say. Now don’t worry, I do have pictures so I can prove to you that I actually went down there, and I have video as well, so I am sure you will see those things very soon (if you keep following me on this blog, of course).

I went right down to the very bottom of the waterfall. You could actually stand right under it if you wanted to. It would have been dumb to do that today, but I got right down there to feel the spray. That was awesome. You can, of course, also walk behind the waterfall under the cliff overhang. There is also a very interesting cave behind the falls. If you look on wikipedia, it mentions this cave, but indicates it is just this big area under the overhang. What? That is not a cave! But that is what I thought people were talking about when they mentioned the cave at Phantom Falls. Do you believe everything you read on wikipedia? In actual fact, however, there is a cave. A real cave, which is also a man-made cave, not a natural cave. I have no idea why it is there. It is not very big, but you can go in it and look down into a 20 ft drop. You would not want to fall in there, because you would not be getting out of it anytime soon. Anyhow, it is all very cool. If I can talk my son into going down there with me someday, I will definitely be back.

Here is an image of 69 ft. high Hollow Falls, North Table Mountain, Oroville from a few weeks ago. I think I might head back to Table Mountain one more time in the near future, now that everything is running again.

This latest storm brought us 7 inches of rain in the northern Sierra Nevada foothills (though only about 2 inches in the valley, such as here in Oroville). It is a tremendous blessing to receive this late season storm, and every little bit of rain is helping. However, I strongly disagree with what the News is saying about our prospects for the summer. I said right at the beginning that we needed at least four major storms just to get us through the summer. We have had three now. (plus 2 or 3 small ones). Folsom Lake is still only at about 45 percent capacity (the big northern reservoirs are not doing any better). There is still very little snow pack (though this last storm did increase that quite a bit). When the snow starts melting (soon), it is not going to increase the reservoir levels enough. We still need to be praying for at least one more big one. It is not spring yet folks (I hope). I will have more on the final snow pack tally on my next post.

I have heard that it does seem like spring on Table Mountain right now. The wildflowers are going off the charts this year at Table Mountain and elsewhere. Perhaps I will have a pretty flower picture for you on my next post. Ha ha.

Please watch latest Waterfall Madman video – new waterfall found in Tadpole Canyon:

I was not intending to come to this particular waterfall, but sometimes that is just how things roll with me. I was hoping to drive up on Foresthill Rd and at least hoping to get to Beacroft if not further. As I drove through Foresthill, I found that it had snowed the previous night as far down as the town. That is about 3500 ft. elevation! I was pretty surprised about this. If there was snow this far down, then getting to Beacroft would certainly be impossible. I did not even try. I turned around and started thinking about Plan B. I seem to be going to Plan B a lot lately.

Plan B would be to go back to Big Mosquito Falls. I have been wanting to get back to this waterfall when it has good strong flow and try to get down to the bottom of it. It has been awhile since I was here last, but I wondered if I could even get to this waterfall. As I drove up Mosquito Ridge Rd I came once more into the snow. The turnoff is at about 4500 ft. elevation, and there was quite a bit of snow. The road goes downhill from there, but it is a steep downhill, and I was worried about getting into a jam way out here in the middle of nowhere. I am sure I could have done it, but I decided to walk. It was less than 2 miles, so it was not a problem to walk it. Besides, I needed the exercise anyway. That is what I told myself anyway.

Getting down to the bottom of the falls was an issue. It is steep enough anyway, but with the wet snow, the path was very slick, and a tad dangerous. I took it very slowly and very carefully, and I made it down to a great viewpoint of the waterfall. From the top of the ridge, there is no good view of this waterfall. But down at the bottom, the view is spectacular. I did not go all the way down to the bottom of the falls, as I was sure I would not get any better view.

I had wanted to go further downstream, but I decided against that as well. The sun was out, and the hike so far was longer and more difficult than initially anticipated, and there was a lot of poison oak, so I decided to leave that adventure for another day.

Nonetheless, on the drive back home, I did find one new waterfall for sure, perhaps even two. However, I could not get to them. I will have to try that another day as well. More adventures ahead for the Waterfall Madman.

See the latest video from Codfish Creek Falls, and please watch in HD:

Here is yet another shot of Devil’s Falls, from a couple weeks ago when it was flowing well. Since then we had a couple weeks of ugly dry weather. The spring people may have liked it, but certainly not I, especially this year when we are in such dire straights for snow and rain. Thankfully, it is back to winter this weekend, and we have another storm which will hopefully bring a few feet of snow into the mountains. March normally brings the end of our wet weather, but I am praying it will continue well into April this year.

This year I have been trying not to watch the long range weather forecasts. I hate getting my hopes up and then being so disappointed. On Monday two of the three weather forecast models were predicting we would be getting 12 inches of rain through the end of this weekend. That got my hopes very high. Then the very next day, it was cut back to 4-5 inches. Argh, I hate that so much. This is precisely why I have been trying to keep from watching the forecasts this year. Just trust that the rain will come. God will provide all we need. Yes, the rain is coming.

On Monday I saw another very long range forecast which also got my hopes up. There is a very strong El Nino forming in the Pacific Ocean. It is much too early, and this is exactly why I don’t want to get my hopes too high, but if this comes to fruition, it will indeed be the answer to all our prayers, and finally spell the end of this incredibly nasty drought in California next winter. Keep praying people!

Please enjoy the next installment of Waterfall Madman: Episode 8 – Table Mountain waterfalls. Please watch in HD:

When I heard from a friend last weekend that the Foresthill Rd was open already, I was in shock. How strange is this? There should be 5-10 feet of snow on the road up there right now in a normal year, but with the meager 12 percent of average snow pack we have this year, that means there is no snow on the Foresthill Rd. This is probably a record for the earliest the road is open. Yet the creeks do have water in them from the small amount of snow that is melting and from some recent rain (though it will not last very long). I was not even thinking about Foresthill until last weekend, but that changed quickly. I figured I had better get up to my favorite area before all the water is gone.

On Monday, I had an epic all day hike planned out. It was going to be awesome, and I would have a brand new waterfall in the bag. However, by Friday afternoon I had serious doubts about this epic adventure. From my initial calculations, I figured this new waterfall would be in the shade by about noon. That would be perfect, giving me plenty of time to get down there and back out before dark. When I re-calculated on Friday, I realized that was incorrect. It would actually be in the sun much later, possibly until as late as 4PM. There is no way I could wait down in the canyon anywhere near that long, I would be hiking back in the dark for certain, and I definitely did not want to hike all the way down there and not be able to take a good photograph of the waterfall. This is really important in my world, and I plan all my hikes to be able to arrive at the waterfall destination in good lighting conditions. If the lighting is bad, I will not even take any pictures. Besides all this, but I had doubts about my back. On an all day hike, I would have to carry a lot more water, and also a lot more gear. My backpack would be a lot heavier, and I did not think my back could handle such a load on a such a long hike (it would be 3500 ft. of elevation hiking back out of the canyon). Also, I wasn’t even sure about my route. It would be crazy steep. Could I even make it to this waterfall?  All these doubts overwhelmed me, and so as I got into bed that night I made a final decision and opted for Plan B. I still want to try to make it to this other waterfall someday, but I will have to figure out a better plan on how to do it.

Plan B was a much easier trek back to Tadpole Canyon, where I have been 3 times before. On the last time there, I noticed another waterfall in upper Tadpole Canyon. I did not have time to check it out then, but I vowed to return. And so I did yesterday. It is a strange waterfall, but a very pretty cascade. I say strange because it is bigger than it looks. Up close it seems more like 20 ft. high, but it actually is 41 ft. high. (I measured it). There is an upper 13 ft. section you cannot see from the base of the falls (in this photo), and the bottom section that you can see here is 28 ft. high. Anyway, it is certainly very pretty. And also very hidden away. I suspect very few others ever knew this was here. You would not see it if you were on the normal route along the Iowa Hill Ditch. For some reason, the last time I was here I hiked a much higher route, and that is when I saw it. Lucky me. And lucky you, cuz now you know about it too.

Speaking of strange, I learned later that when I was here, there was a drunk that put his car into the ditch on the other side of the road immediately opposite the Beacroft trailhead. It is so odd that I did not see it when I drove here, and when I left two hours later, I saw nothing also. I wonder also that if I had gone on that epic hike as initially planned, I would be driving up past here earlier in the morning, and perhaps I would have run into the drunk coming down the hill. Perhaps God’s angels were keeping me safe by giving me all those doubts on Friday. You gotta wonder.