This is Flag Falls on Table Mountain (not Cow Falls). I thought it was interesting to have the cows in the field above them.
I saw a heck of a lot of cow bones on my way out to Flag Falls. It was definitely very eerie walking through this one particular wooded area, thinking that a mountain lion was going to ambush me. I did see a coyote in this area. Coyotes are ok. Mountain lions are not.
I went back to Codfish Falls this weekend hoping to find some new waterfalls and hoping the creeks would still be flowing well after the rains of a couple weeks ago. Nada to both.
I did shoot one new-ish waterfall, that being Jefferson Canyon Falls which is right beside the road. But it was not flowing very well and I was quite bummed about that, so I probably won’t share that photo, but I do have it on my website here.
I was happy to see that the State Parks removed the stupid pay kiosk here. It was so stupid to have to pay $10 to go on a one mile hike, especially considering how bloody awful the road is down here. If I’m going to pay that much for parking they sure as heck better fix the stupid road (did I mentione it was stupid). Maybe someone at the State Parks finally wised up. Or maybe they just took the kiosk out for the winter. I sure hope it is the first thing and not the second thing. I also hope they removed the kiosks at the other places where there should not be any (like Knickerbocker, and the Confluence).
It is an easy hike out to Codfish Falls and I arrived early, before the sun got to it. The creek was flowing ok but not as strong as I expected. More rain please!
I didn’t really have any desire to return to Codfish Falls, but I wanted to explore further upstream, thinking there might be another waterfall up there somewhere. So after shooting Codfish Falls, I went up to the top. There is a trail up there, and surprisingly it continues all the way up the canyon. The bad thing, however, is that it is completely overgrown with poison oak. The oak was unavoidable. I made sure to scrub down when I got home, but I am sure hoping I do not get the dreaded rash. I went all the way to Little Codfish Creek, and beyond that until I got to the place where I thought there might be a waterfall. No waterfall was found, except for a five footer. I thought about continuing further, but I also kinda wanted to see if I could get up Little Codfish Creek because I think there might be a waterfall on that creek as well. Unfortunately, there is no trail up that canyon, and it just had far too much poison oak to make an attempt, so I turned and went back down, but I really need to figure out a way to get up there. Someday.
This was a bit of a surprise and I was definitely happy to find this new waterfall. I was not sure there even would be another waterfall in Mexican Gulch; I suspected there might be one, but more often than not, I find nothing instead of something.
I almost found nothing again. I could see the top of the waterfall as I descended from the road down into the gully. As I got closer, I got a good look at it and realized it was just a small, unworthy waterfall, only about 15 ft high at most. I was disappointed, thinking I had struck out yet again. At that point, I almost went back up the hill. It would be pointless to continue, however, at the last moment, I decided to descend all the way to the creek to get one more look at it from below. It was not difficult to go down, and if it was difficult I certainly would not have continued any further. When I reached the creek I was in for a big surprise. There was a lower tier that I could not see from above. This totally changed the dynamics of this waterfall. What at first seemed to be a small, boring, unworthy 15 ft. waterfall, now became a very pretty, two tiered waterfall, 25 ft. in height. Awesome! The Madman strikes again.
This waterfall would be quite amazing at high flows I am sure. Mexican Gulch is a small stream, but I really thought it would be flowing much better than it was. I certainly would like to return here at some point, when I know the creek will be rushing very strong. If we ever get out of this drought, that is.
P.S. I now have a SUBSCRIBE button for my blog on the left side. You can now keep up to date with all my blog posts.
Here is a new waterfall for you and me. But is it a surprise? Certainly it is not an unknown waterfall. It is located right beside the road on the way down to the ever popular Devil’s Falls. But I had never before stopped to photograph it, or even consider it as being a worthy waterfall. At least to say, I have only once before been down this way when it is flowing well, and that was many many years ago. It is on a very small drainage and needs a lot of rain to be flowing well, and usually if it has rained a lot, I have many other places to attend to, I never go down to Devil’s Falls area. But it does in fact qualify as a worthy waterfall for my website. You may have not considered it before if you have seen it, but it is actually on a named stream (Quail Trap Ravine), and is certainly over 20 ft high (it is 40 ft high), and it does flow throughout the winter season (though it does need much rain to flow well).
So anyway with all that in hand, I wanted to make a point to get a good photograph of the waterfall when it was flowing well. This weekend seemed like a prime time to do so.
It is a crazy, narrow, steep road down to Devil’s Falls, with humongous dropoffs. I hate it. There is no where to park at Quail Ravine at all, so I parked back up the road and walked down to it. It is not a particularly photogenic waterfall, and it could have used a bit more flow. The upper section, however, seemed a bit more photogenic from roadside. But could I climb up to it? As I examined the ascent up the rocks, it seemed to me quite possible. To go up. But coming back down would be another matter entirely. What the hey. I went up. I took my photos of the photogenic section of the falls. I turned around. I thought I might be trapped up there forever like a quail in Quail Trap Ravine, or die trying to get back down. I am kidding, but it definitely was tricky getting back down, and I had to use my rope to make the descent safely. No problem though.
On to the next waterfall. I did find a second new waterfall as well, which was more of a surprise find. It was not one I knew about, only suspected of its existence, but not overly confident of said existence. Well it does exist, and I will share the details very soon. It definitely made me a happy camper to find another new waterfall in the area.
I then made a stop at Devil’s Falls before I headed back up the crazy narrow hill. Devil’s was flowing very well. The rain in the past week has been very good. Folsom Lake has risen from 30 percent to 37 percent with the latest series of storms, but the real bad news is the snow pack, which currently is at only 15 percent of normal, and only one month left in the snow season. Even if we get a couple more big storms, we are still going to be in a terrible struggle to get through the summer.
Down at Yankee Jim’s bridge, it was a madhouse. This location is a prime takeout and put in spot for kayakers on the North Fork American River, and it seems every kayaker and their dog was out on this day. As I crossed the bridge, a slow car cut in front of me with a trailer of kayaks and headed up the hill. Although it is steep and narrow, there are plenty of spots to pull over to let someone pass. Is it not common courtesy to pull over when you are going very slow with a trailer and someone obviously faster than you is behind you? I mean geepers, come on, just have some courtesy eh. Darn kayakers, how rude. Ok, end rant. Carry on.
The first waterfall I went to last Saturday was this one I had never been to before, called: Catamount Falls. It is a really nice 45 ft. high cascade and definitely a sweet looking waterfall, and quite easy to get to.
Except for the poison oak. I was absolutely positive I never touched any poison oak on my hike, and because of that, I never bothered to scrub down when I got home. Next day: my entire body is covered with poison oak rash. Oh crazy stupid waterfall hunter! I must have picked it up going down here to Catamount Falls. There was certainly oak around, though I was pretty sure I had avoided it all. Apparently not! Ugh. Well, it was worth going down to this waterfall, but next time I will be sure to scrub off the oak when I get home.
This is a fairly recently “discovered” waterfall on Table Mountain, not by me. I would have come here much sooner, but the drought prevented me. This waterfall has a very small drainage and needs a lot of rain before it will be flowing. We just have not had that in the last couple years. This weekend we had enough to get all the waterfalls flowing, so I made a point of getting down to it this time, finally.
The person who “discovered” it came up with the name Catamount Falls (which, by the way, is another name for mountain lion, and there certainly seem to be plenty of these on Table Mountain). I am surprised the name has caught on as much as it has. My own name for this waterfall was Lower Hollow Falls, which to me makes a bit more sense, but nonetheless I still like the name Catamount, so we will certainly go with this name.
New episode of Waterfall Madman. Please watch in HD: