Leon Turnbull Photography

It has been a long time since I have been waterfallin in the Bay Area. Why? Well the drought of course, that is the reason. It’s a long drive to see dry waterfalls and for the last four years that is pretty much what they have been. Well I figured it was time to return and go to the ocean as well. What better day to do it then my birthday? My wife now hates me for going to the ocean without her. I did invite her to come along though.

She didn’t want to get up at the crazy hour that I left. Yet even though I left so early, traffic was absolutely awful. It was 5:30 AM and the road was all backed up when I got over there. What the hey? Who goes to work at 5:30am? This essentially put me 30 minutes late when I arrived at the trailhead, and timing would be critical for low tide.

I hiked up to the first waterfall. It was flowing very subpar, and I was quite disappointed. These waterfalls by all accounts should have been a lot better. The second waterfall that I wanted to see was not even possible. The waves were already crashing against the cliffs. It was already past the low tide point, it would’ve been incredibly risky for me to continue. I decided to turn around and go to the third waterfall Arroyo Hondo Falls (pictured here). This is a smaller one but rather interesting. I did find it very difficult to photograph, as I could not find any good angle. I wish I had a 10 foot ladder to stand up on to take a photo of this one, but no ladder was handy and there was nothing else I could elevate myself on. There is a strange looking shack right beside this waterfall on the beach, and tied down to the side of the cliff. Why is it here? There were all sorts of signs and bottles and other knickknacks inside it. Very weird and very interesting. Also very upsetting that there was a ton of garbage all along the beach washed up by the tide mostly, and far too much to even consider picking up. Is that just the way things are now on the beaches of California? It really perturbs me, and in fact it was rather disgusting and kinda ruined the hike.

Well anyhow, despite the garbage, it was a good birthday morning so far but it was time to get back to the car and drive to my second hike. Stay tuned.

This is Black Point Beach Falls near Stewart Point on the Sonoma Coast. This is one of three significant waterfalls I found on this beach, in addition to a couple other smaller ones. All of them just drop on unnamed streams onto the beach, 30 to 45 feet in height. This was the smallest of the three, 30 ft. high, but it was the easiest one to photograph. This location is off the beaten path, but it sure is nice. How could you not like waterfalls falling onto the beach?

In other news, I have a big announcement to make! My prints will be on permanent display at a brand new gallery and gift shop opening up in Weed CA, starting May 1. The address is: 248 Main Street, and the grand opening is set for Saturday, May 5. I am planning to be there for the grand opening in the morning. I know it is far north in California, but if you can make it up there for the grand opening (or at any other time in the near future), that would be awesome. This is a new and exciting adventure for myself, and you will be able to see (and purchase!) many of my prints as well as work from quite a few other artists. So next time you are in Weed, please make a point of stopping by!

It is not so good. Overall, as of April 1, California has a 50 percent of normal snowpack. The huge storm we received in March essentially raised us from 30 percent at the beginning of the month to 50 percent. I had heard and was anticipating to see about 65 percent figures but this is not the case. Breaking it down more there is a very large variance between the northern and southern parts of the state this year. The north fared much better and are up around 80 to 95 percent of normal. Central CA and Tahoe are around 50 percent and the Southern Sierra is down around an ugly 40 percent.

April 1 is the magic date for measuring snowpack. Normally after this date the snow starts melting and we do not receive very much more precipitation. The snow has already started melting and the river levels in the mountains are higher.

What does this mean? Will there be a waterfall season this year in CA? The answer is yes there will be and yes it has already started. But it will not last very long nor will it be as spectacular as usual. The meager snowpack will melt very quickly and once it is gone the creeks will go dry. My suggestion to you is to get out into the mountains this month and enjoy yourself, as much as possible. A lot of the roads are still closed which presents a difficulty but some may be open or will open soon. I think by end of May or even earlier most of the snow will be all melted. So get out there and get to it!

This photo is from Russian Gulch State Park. The hike into the falls is about 2.5 miles and very easy. It is a popular hike especially when the creek is flowing as it was on this day. As I hiked in I counted the hiker groups coming back and based on the number of cars in the parking lot tried to figure if I would be alone at the falls. I like to have my waterfalls to myself! Not so on this day, there were a couple groups already at the falls and another came in behind me. The good news is that the sun had gone behind some clouds and I had nice lighting for photos. I did not have to wait for anyone to get out of the way but I did have to tell someone else to wait for me, someone who wanted to climb out on that big log to get as close to the falls as possible, while his girlfriend looked on nonchalantly. As for me, I had much more anxiety than her, wondering if he would slip and tumble into the creek. He did not.

There are a lot of jumbled logs around the falls as you can see from the photo. You might think I would give this one a rather low rating and say it is such an ugly waterfall. You might think so yourself. But this is not the case with this waterfall. These logs are very much part of the character and personality of Russian Gulch Falls. Very much like that big log across Lion Slide Falls. Can you imagine that waterfall without that log? It is the same thing with this one. This waterfall may not be huge but it does have a lot of character.

The next stop on my north coast adventure was Chamberlain Falls in Jackson State Forest. It is located off the highway about 5 miles or so on a dirt road. Could I make it in my little Honda? Would there be snow on the roads, making passage impossible? Or would the road be too muddy or pothole-ly? Yes, I could make it no problem. The road was perfectly fine.

I got to the trailhead out in the middle of the forest, with no one around. The hike is very short, but it was not without difficulty. There were a number of downed trees across the trail, probably from last year, and they were in a particularly steep section. It required a bit of a detour to get around them, and at this section, the main trail split off into a number of sections, I supposed, as people attempted to get around the downed trees and then down to the falls. It is rather unfortunate about this, as there are now numerous trails descending down through the delicate forest to the waterfall, when there should be one and only one trail. It is just really messy.

Well, I made it down to the falls. It is really a marvelous waterfall, dropping 51 feet in a convex shape into a beautiful grotto. There is an upper section that you can only glimpse. It does feel like you are in another world down there, and I spent quite a bit of time down here taking photos from different vantage points, but it is not an easy waterfall to photograph. Anyway, time to move on and back up the steep trail to the car, and to my next destination.

When I arrived in Willits in the early morning hours, it was snowing. Snowing hard. And sticking! I could not believe it. The town is only at around 1400 ft. elevation, very low to be receiving snow. It was becoming rather difficult to drive but I did not think the snow would last too long once the sun came up. As it got lighter, I could see the surrounding countryside was very beautiful. I was hoping there would be snow at my waterfall destination but I did not think so, because I was descending to a lower elevation.

Dora Falls at Leggett was my first destination. Leggett was quite a bit out of the way, and I was not sure if it would be worth the trip up there. All photos I have seen of Dora Falls have been very crappy, obscured by trees and branches, it did not look like a very scenic waterfall. I was wrong. There was indeed no snow at Dora Falls (which would have been awesome), but it certainly is a very scenic and photogenic waterfall. In fact, I would say it was the best of the five waterfalls I saw on this day. It is a very short hike off the highway up to the falls, and it drops 50 ft. precisely. You can get right up to it, right in the creek, and there are no obscuring branches in the way. I guess in the past, the waterfall was even bigger, before a landslide destroyed much of the waterfall. Too bad about that, but it is still a beauty of a falls and certainly worth the long trip.

There are actually a couple other unknown waterfalls in the Leggett area, and I was hoping to get to one or both of them. I realized, however, in short order, that these would not be possible to get to. Well, they could be possible, I supposed, but they would each require a gargantuan amount of effort to reach, and I did not have the time on this day. I still had a very long day ahead and four other (easier) waterfalls to get to. I would like to return and try to get to them on another day. It will happen someday. I returned to Willits, where much of the snow was already melted, filled up with gas, and then continued to my next destination of the day.