I had a big whompin hike planned for Saturday but I just wanted to sleep in. When I got up I thought if there was another hike closer to home that I could do and maybe take Journey as well. I thought about Jay Bird Canyon Falls. It has been 13 years since I was there. It should be flowing well but could I get there? There would be a lot of snow. I didn’t think they normally plow this road and thus I figured it was quite unlikely but decided to try it anyway. I had a backup plan to go to Bassi Falls if the road was all snowed in.
Good news. The road was plowed all the way down to the power house. It was no problem at all driving all the way down to the gate. If it was not plowed there is no way I would have made it. The gate is interesting. The road is officially closed because of storm damage from 2017 so you need to walk from the gate (about 1.5 miles). But the road damage is fixed! So why is the road still closed? It does not make sense. At least there is a big area to park by the gate and it is not a difficult walk from here. But also, it is not very exciting to hike along the paved road either. It is rather boring. Nonetheless, Journey was very happy. She is always very happy to go hiking with daddy. Even on a boring road walk.
When you get down to the waterfall there is a steep section to climb up to the falls. At the base of the falls it was incredibly misty. Jay Bird Canyon Falls was roaring. There was no way to take photos from there. The only option was to climb up the ridge opposite the waterfall. It was very steep and the rocks were incredibly slick. I was worried about Journey. Not for climbing up but for going back down. She made it up no problem. I pondered how we were going to get her back down afterwards. Would she balk? Would I have to somehow carry her down? Or would she do all right?
In the meantime I took some photos from the top of the ridge. Jay Bird Canyon Falls is 173 ft. high. It was spectacular. I think it may have been slightly stronger when I was here last in 2011 but it was pretty similar. Absolutely amazing.
We very carefully hiked back down to the creek level. Journey did awesome! She made it down those steep slick rocks without slipping once. I was so proud of her. We had our lunch at the bottom, then hiked back up the road to the car. It was a fabulous day in Eldorado National Forest.
When my wife asked me how my toe was earlier in the week I said it was very good and about 95% healed. I think it was the next day, all of a sudden I was having a very bad day. It was not 95%. It was more like 75%. Not good. I did not bang it or anything so why is it hurting so much again? And I had a very tough hike planned for the weekend.
Well by the time the weekend came around it was feeling better so the hike was back on as planned. Except the weather forecasters messed me up. It was not supposed to start raining until 10AM. All the forecasts I checked said it would start 10AM at the earliest, but it was already raining when I woke up in the morning. And it had already rained during the night. Oh come on people. You cannot even get the forecast right when it is just a few hours in advance??
This forecasting error turned out to be a bigger problem than I anticipated. The problem was that the rocks were extremely slippery and dangerous. I made it down to the river. My plan had been to attempt to walk down the river to the waterfall. I did not know if it would work or not, however, I didn’t even make it a quarter mile downstream. It was just too dangerous. I had to retreat back up the mountain. If it had not rained (as it was supposed to) then I am sure I could have made it a lot further. I will return again.
Back at the car it was still cloudy. I decided to go on an easy hike to North Fork Falls, which I have done many times before. For my toe’s sake I went the easy way (from the campground). This meant I had to cross the river at the waterfall. Not a problem except for those very slippery rocks. I made it over safely and to the waterfall overlook. It was a gloomy day in Tahoe National Forest.
I decided to return to Antelope Creek to attempt to get up to the main waterfall. I only got to the small lower falls the previous week and was a bit disappointed. Now I knew what I had to do. Back into the poison oak. Back into the horrible brush. This time I was determined for redemption.
I only managed to start 30 minutes earlier than before. I wanted to have more time than that but it should be ok since I now knew where I was going. It took a full hour to just get up to the lower falls. So much brush. So much oak. And today, so many bugs! It has been much warmer than it should be this week. It is supposed to be winter, for Pete’s sake. Also, there were many ladybugs along the trail. It was hard not to step on them as they were all along and over the trail.
At the lower falls I climbed up above it and then crossed the creek and continued up the mountain. The old trail also continued. What is this old trail anyway? I do not think it is a trail just to go to the waterfall. I can’t imagine anyone at all has been on this trail in many years. Maybe decades. Perhaps it is an old miner’s trail. It is the only thing that makes sense to me. On this side of the creek it seemed the trail was more difficult and there was more poison oak. Perhaps it was just my imagination. I was battling through the brush and it was now a lot steeper going up the mountain. After another 30 minutes I finally reached my destination. Waterfall!
This is the true Antelope Creek Falls. 39 ft. high. It is slightly smaller than I thought and for some reason I thought it would be more spectacular. (only because it was so hard to get to – I am aware that is illogical, ha ha). Anyway it is still a fantastic waterfall, although a bit hard to photograph. I had to climb down a steep section to get to the bottom of the falls and then cross into the middle of the creek to get a good angle. It was definitely worth the effort but oh my was it a doozie to reach. I returned to the car at 5PM and ate my dinner sandwich before driving home. It was a killer tough day at Antelope Creek.
I was not really into watching the Super Bowl this year. I don’t even know who was playing (well, maybe I know that at least). I would rather go hiking. So that is what I did after church on Sunday.
I have been wanting to try this hike for awhile. Access is difficult to say the least. I arrived at the trailhead in the early afternoon (there is no trail so I guess I cannot really call it a trailhead). I found the creek to be flowing very strong. I was not expecting there to still be so much water. My plan was to wade up the creek but that was not going to be possible now. So instead, I crossed the creek and climbed up the other side. I did not think I’d get very far now but I had to try it. Well much to my surprise I found an old trail following the creek upstream. This was very unexpected. It was very difficult to follow. It was very overgrown. The poison oak was treacherous, but I continued all the way up to the confluence of the two creeks. I was literally shocked to get this far.
This was about as far as I could go. There was a small waterfall here on Antelope Creek, barely 20 ft. high (being generous), but it was a nice little cascade. There was a smaller waterfall on the other creek. My wife would think it was a waterfall but I did not think so as it was only about 10 ft. high. I took photos of the 20 footer.
I am sure there is a bigger waterfall upstream. I climbed above the small waterfall. I could see another small drop but no big waterfall. I could not find a way to continue any further. At least not very easily. I decided to call it a day and turn back. Perhaps if there was less water I could make it further. I may return some day but it was very difficult just to get this far. It was a good Super Bowl Sunday for the Waterfall Madman.
Bassi Falls in the spring? Very awesome. Bassi Falls in the winter? Not very good. What about Bassi Falls in the winter after a Pineapple Express with 11.5 inches of rain? I wondered what it would be like this last weekend after the storm. Would it be flowing as well as it does in the spring? Or perhaps even better than spring?
I was actually planning to go to Table Mountain in Oroville on this day but I was just so tired and I could not wake up. I slept in until 7:30am (for me that is incredibly late). I blame my kids. I stayed up with them on New Year’s Eve and the lack of sleep caught up with me two days later. So I slept in on the holiday Monday and did not feel like going to Oroville when I woke up. Instead, I thought about going to Bassi Falls in the afternoon. Heck, why not?
There were a lot of people on Ice House Rd, going up there to play in the snow, but no one was hiking to Bassi Falls. Nonetheless, there were a lot of tracks and the trail was well trodden down. I did not need my snow shoes as the snow was hard packed and easy to walk upon. It was quite icy, however, and I wondered if I should have brought my spikes. I especially thought it was going to be very icy at the falls (and it was).
Bassi Falls was indeed spectacular and it was very much like spring flows. The ice around the waterfall was incredible and obviously not something you will see in the spring. To be honest I did not really think it would be flowing like this on Monday. This really made me wonder what it would have been like on Saturday in the rain. I imagine it would have been much tougher to get there but the water flows would have been out of this world (it would have had at about 10 times the flow on Saturday). Perhaps for the next Pineapple Express I will try this one.
By the way, to the assholes who left their graffiti all over the area this past summer, thanks so much for making Bassi Falls look like those southern California waterfalls that have ugly graffiti everywhere. Please leave your address below so I can personally thank you.
On the hike back to the car I did see a couple people. Apparently they only went to the lower falls and were on their way back already. Why would you hike all the way to the lower falls and not go to the big waterfall? I have seen that a lot. People only go to the lower falls and don’t even know there is a big waterfall just a short distance further. You people need to check out waterfallswest.com. It is a pretty good website, you know. Anyway, as I passed by this couple I definitely let them know they missed out on seeing an incredible waterfall. It was an awesome winter day in Eldorado National Forest.
