Leon Turnbull Photography

I woke up at 4:30AM. It was about 35 degrees but I was warm in my sleeping bag. I had my sleeping bag liner, plus 3 tops and 1 pair of long underwear. I packed up camp in the dark, ate some breakfast, and headed up the hill.

To get to these two new waterfalls I had to cross Palisade Creek. This is a very large creek. In the spring, in any normal spring, crossing it would be impossible. This is not a normal spring and I got lucky. Before I started this trip, I had little hope that I would be able to cross it. It is not peak flow yet but it is getting close to peak flow; and as I said I got lucky. Cold weather this week brought the rate of snow melt down to about 600 cfs at the North Fork Dam. Nonetheless, there were some sections of the creek that looked do-able and others that looked completely uncrossable. Fortunately, at the spot where I intended to cross there was a perfect (and very safe) section. I easily crossed the creek. (I could have crossed with NFAR at 900 cfs but probably not more). Now I had to continue up the east side until I reached the upper most waterfall. There was brush, there were snowy sections I had to walk over, there were very tricky steep sections. It was not easy. I saw a lot of bear prints in the snow. Mountain lion also. This is a very remote place. I somehow doubt any human has ever been up this way. Only the wild things go here (and madmen).

Finally, I reached the waterfall: Upper East Palisade Creek Falls. It is about 60 ft. high. Another first discovery by waterfallswest.com. It is not the most impressive waterfall but it is still very pretty (it would be better at high flows, but how would you cross Palisade Creek?). I quickly took my photos then hurried back down. I still had to get to the lower falls (which I did, and also is another first discovery by yours truly).

When I got back to the Palisade trail I was very tired. It was a heckuva lot of work climbing up to these waterfalls but I still had to climb 1400 feet out of the canyon. I took a long rest and then started up the hill at 9AM. I was dog tired and it was very slow going through the soft snow. I got back to the trailhead at about 3PM.

My feet were really hurting when I got home. I have a foot injury this spring. So far it has been manageable, but after this trip it was much worse. I basically could not walk the next day. When my mom reads this (and she will), she will immediately call me and tell me not to hike anymore until it is healed. Perhaps some of you are thinking the same thing. Well, it may come to that but I still have 5 more backpacking trips I really want to do this spring. As I write this, my feet are now all better and I’m raring to go out again. It is a very short season this year and the waterfalls will be all gone by mid June. I have to at least try to plow through this injury. I can heal it during the summer.

My first backpacking trip of the spring was a tremendous success. I was so excited to get to these three new waterfalls (plus two oldies). Mission accomplished in Tahoe National Forest at the North Fork American River.

When I got back to my camp it was sunset, so I had very little time to photograph Upper Palisade Creek Falls and a long exposure was the only option. I wanted something different than the last time I was here, so I got right down at creek level in front of it. Last time this was not possible because there was too much mist. This time there was only a little mist. I really like how this photo turned out.

By the time I finished photographing this lower tier it was dark so I did not go to the upper tier. I just went to bed. It was a long tiring day. I should sleep well. Except I had to get up at 4:30am ….

The main reason I wanted to go down to Palisade again was because of this new waterfall (and two others). I just discovered these ones recently. You will not find them anywhere else. Not on All Trails. Not in any book. The kayakers have seen this one before. Only the madman has likely seen it on foot and I am the first to document it. I am calling it Heath Springs Falls. It drops directly into the NFAR. An absolutely fabulous waterfall, about 100 ft. high.

I had a vague idea that I could get all the way down to the river here, or at least close. Ha! Not even a remote chance of that happening. There is an enormous cliff here, towering at least one hundred feet above the river. A humongous drop off! Well, so much for that idea. Only the kayakers are going to get up close to this one. I could take a swan dive off the cliff into the river? Nope. Whatever, the good news is that there is a great unobstructed view point of the waterfall at the edge of the cliff, but the edges looked extremely unstable. I really did not want to get right up to the end of it. I absolutely did not trust the ground whatsoever. Nonetheless, I was able to find some good (safe-ish) vantage points of the waterfall. I was happy. The first day of my mission was a great success.

“And the seventh lives in a narrow place, and is of power.” (from Ode to NFAR – by Leon Turnbull)

There is just one place I love to go backpacking early in the season. Into the belly of the beast: The North Fork American River. NFAR. The one and only. My all time favorite river.

This time I decided to go down into Palisade the hard way. I wanted a bit of a challenge. I am a glutton for punishment I guess. There was quite a bit of snow at the trailhead. Probably around 4-5 feet or so in most places. Snowshoes were required, especially as the snow got softer in the warm sun and you would be sinking in deep without them. It was tough going.

As I descended into Palisade Canyon I was in heaven. It is so incredibly beautiful in the spring with all the snow around you. All alone. How many people have ever seen how beautiful this place is in the spring? It is a popular trail in summer but only the madman goes down there in spring. The only others that venture down into Palisade are the bears. I saw quite a few bear tracks in the snow but I did not see any of the beautiful creatures (unfortunately).

Keeping on the trail is virtually impossible. I lost it many times. A couple times I intentionally went off trail, trying to avoid the problem areas. The first time worked out well. I was walking on open granite where all the snow had melted. The second time not so well. I got caught up in way too much brush: argh! The third time I was forced to go off trail because of dangerous sections. This is where I had to turn back in the spring of 2017 but this time I made it through. It was very difficult! As I descended lower in elevation, snowshoes became worthless. There are just big patchy sections of snow. It was better to just hike on it with boots. I left my snowshoes along the trail to pick up the next day. Carrying them down with me (and back up) would be way too much extra weight. Finally, I lost the snow completely. The last mile or so down to Upper Palisade was snowless. It was a big relief.

I made it down to my camp at Upper Palisade Creek Falls at around 2PM. It took 6 hours to hike the 7 or 8 miles. Going back up the next day would take even longer. I setup my camp and ate my dinner. Then I went for an evening hike.

It was not my intention on this trip to go all the way down to Palisade Falls on the river. However, I did go down to NFAR at Heath Falls (pictured here). Going to Heath Falls was not the main reason why I wanted to do this hike again. There was another reason. Actually, three other reasons. Meaning … three brand new waterfall discoveries. You will have to wait for my next couple of posts to see them. Heath Falls, though, was here! How could I not go down to my favorite river and one of my favorite waterfalls? The ever spectacular Heath Falls, 65 ft. high. It was a fantastic day on the NFAR.

I was planning to go backpacking this weekend. However, when I arrived at the trailhead I found no place to park! I did this hike a couple years ago and I had no trouble parking overnight, but now there are no parking signs everywhere. So now no one can park here and hike. This is absolutely ridiculous and extremely upsetting, Placer County. This is a public road. There is no reason why we should not be allowed to park and hike here. Well, I will be back here later with a different plan. I am not going to be denied this hike. But for now, I had to retreat.  Strike one.

I drove up Foresthill Road in the afternoon. The satellite image seemed to show the road is now open to Tadpole, however, I was stopped before Ford Point. No go. There was not much snow but it was more than enough to stop me. Strike two.

I did not have time anymore to do my planned hike but I decided to just park and walk up the road to Tadpole. There is one waterfall there I have been wanting to check out and this seemed like as good a time as any to do it. It is a pleasant road walk but you do gain about 700 ft. in elevation. I dropped down into the canyon all the way to the creek. It was not “too hard” to get down but it was not easy either. I found this 33 ft. high cascade. Not a very big waterfall but not awful either.

It was in the sun so I had to wait. The problem is I did not research this beforehand so I had no idea when it would be in the shade. I waited an hour, watching the sun closely. While I waited I ate my dinner and then to entertain myself, I threw twigs in the water, trying to get them into a little whirlpool and then see how long it took for the twig to finally get over a mini waterfall. Yes, I am easily amused. Well, after an hour it became very clear that the waterfall would not be out of the sun until sunset. That was still two hours away. There is no way I was going to wait another two hours. It was just not worth it. I still had to climb out of the canyon followed by a long road walk back to my car. I just took some photos as best as I could and left. Strike three. It was an interesting day in Tahoe National Forest.