Leon Turnbull Photography

Here is one more from Palisade Falls, my big backpacking trip down into the North Fork American River canyon a couple weeks ago.

This last weekend I tried to get into Wildcat Canyon Falls again. The last time I was there was in 2007, 11 years ago. I did not make it this time. I got almost all the way down there, I could see one of the waterfalls off in the distance, but then I hit a wall of brush. For the last half mile or more, there was a mound of thick brush, at least 6 feet tall, and completely impassable. Eleven years ago, there was no brush at all. Unbelievable and incredible and so disappointing.

This is now the fifth trail I have tried into the North Fork American River in the last couple years, all of which are now impassable. American River Trail: impassable, Beacroft Trail: impassable, Mumford Bar Trail: almost impassable, Big Granite Trail: impassable, and Wildcat Canyon Trail: impassable. These used to be all excellent trails, they are my favorite trails in the world, and now you cannot hike them at all. Tahoe National Forest has not done anything to maintain these trails whatsoever, and now you cannot even hike them. What a horrible shame. The only trails that are still good are the Palisade Trail, and Sailor Flat Trail (I think – but I have not hiked this one recently). I could very well be wrong, but I do not really sense such a huge issue for trails in other National Forests, but only in Tahoe National Forest.

I am at a loss what to do; however, I’ve been thinking about it. I thought maybe I should go in and clear them by myself, but that would be impossible. One person hacking down a wall of brush 6 feet high for a half mile? That would be senseless. One thing I am doing is sending a letter to Tahoe National Forest about it, and I urge you all to do the same thing. These trails need to be restored. I am even going to volunteer to help them do it. I am waiting for a response from them. We will see what happens, but I am sure the excuse will be no funds or some such thing. Sigh.

So have you watched the new Netflix series Lost In Space? I have recently just finished watching season one. I love it! I think it is better than Stranger Things (is that blasphemy?). I never watched the original series so I have no comparison, but I really like this new show. The famous saying in the series is when the robot says “danger, Will Robinson”. So what does that have to do with this waterfall???

Well … first off, this waterfall is Little Robinsons Valley Falls, for which the trail starts at Robinsons Flat. Robinson, get it? I drove up here on Saturday afternoon, thinking that I would not be able to drive all the way up to Robinsons Flat. The Tahoe NF office was saying I could only drive to Ford Point. I thought that would be highly unlikely, they are always completely inaccurate at Tahoe National Forest; I was expecting to drive to Tadpole and walk from there. There was no snow at Tadpole, so I kept on driving. On Canada Hill, there was one big snow patch, for which I was very leery of driving through. Indeed, I was not going to attempt it. However, I saw a small truck without 4 wheel drive coming down the hill. He had no problems. Heck, if he can make it, then surely so can I. I have 4 wheel drive! It was not very difficult to drive through that patch, and after that, the road was “mostly” clear all the way to Robinsons Flat. Perfect! This would save me 3 miles (one way) of hiking. There was quite a bit of snow at Robinsons Flat, and I was hiking in it to start with, but I was not sinking in (much), so I did not need to use my snowshoes. Even though there were other cars that had driven up here, mine were the only foot tracks going down the trail. Except for the bears and coyotes, that is.

I was not planning to go to Little Robinsons Valley Falls. I wanted to continue hiking past it, down the canyon. For some reason, I thought there would not be much elevation loss on this hike, only a couple hundred feet or so. I did not check my maps closely enough. It was about 1000 ft. elevation loss. Not only that, the hike was much longer than anticipated because apparently the trail has been re-routed to avoid some difficult sections. Oh well, I was not concerned about all that. I had lots of time. It was an awesome day, and an awesome hike.

When I got down to where the waterfall should be, however, I found no waterfall. Actually, there was one but it was just a small one. The terrain was very cliffy. The rocks were crumbly and loose, with steep dropoffs. I went down quite a way, but I could not get all the way down to creek level. Danger, Will Robinson! It was not worth the risk for such a small waterfall, so I decided to turn back.

I ate my food, then hiked back up the trail. When I got back to the turnoff for Little Robinsons Valley Falls, I hummed and hawed.  Should I go down to it or not? I had 30 minutes until dark. It was just enough time (barely) to hike down to the falls and back. I decided to go down. I took a quick shot of the upper tier, but there was no time to go to the lower tier. I got back to the car just as it was getting dark. It was a fantastic evening in Little Robinsons Valley.

This is the middle tier of Palisade Creek Falls. It is a massive 3 tiered waterfall. It is magnificent. Only the middle tier is easily accessible and photographable, however. I wanted to photograph the other two tiers, but I just could not find any good viewpoints for either of them.

Top tier of Upper Palisade Creek Falls.

“And the sixth is where the emerald fairies play in the summer.” (from Ode to NFAR – by Leon Turnbull)

It was very cold during the night; it was not freezing but I’m sure it was much less than 40 degrees. I had to wear all the clothes I had brought, and I did not sleep very well. I did survive the night, however. The outside of my sleeping bag was wet in the morning, not a good thing, but at least it was not wet on the inside. That would have been horrible.

I was also hacking like a mad man all night long (pun intended). I had a cold, which started before I left on this trip. I was determined not to abandon my big backpacking trip just because of a little thing such as sickness. I already missed a couple weeks of hiking this year due to sickness. Now I was sick again just before my trip! Thank you to my dear son and daughter for giving me another cold! It has actually been a very rough spring in the Turnbull household. It seems that we have been constantly sick this year. Anyway, the good news is that the bears and mountain lions would not want to come anywhere near me for fear of catching my cold. I’m kidding. Sort of. I’m sure they would have run far away from my tent if they heard me hacking in the night.

I got up early. My plan was to explore further up Palisade Creek. There are three new waterfalls up there I wanted to try to reach. I was not very successful. The first one at least I could get a view of. It was about 30 ft. high. However, I could only see it from the top of a cliff. There was no way down to the bottom of it from the cliff, and approaching the falls from along the creek was far too brushy. The other two falls were completely inaccessible. I got a glimpse of them from a long way off, but the terrain was far too steep and cliffy to get any closer.

Bummed, I returned to camp, had coffee and breakfast, then packed up my gear. From here, it is a short hike down to the river. All easy, all downhill. I left my snowshoes beside the trail before the big downhill section started. I would certainly not need them 1000 ft. lower at the river. Hopefully, the bears would not steal them. No humans would be down here, that is for certain.

The views on this trail are amazing. In the distance I could see majestic Snow Mountain, still a lot of snow on it, and East Snow Mountain Falls dropping off it. This is the second highest waterfall in California, at 2200 ft. high, second only to Yosemite Falls. I measured this waterfall myself when I was down here in 2006 with my brother-in-law.

Down at the North Fork American River, Palisade Falls was roaring (pictured here). In 2006, the flow downstream at the North Fork Dam was about 600 cfs. This weekend it was about 1400 cfs, more than twice the volume. It was amazing. I have wanted to see these waterfalls at high flow for a long time, and now I have. The North Fork American River canyon is just so incredibly beautiful.

I went down to the same campsite where my brother-in-law and I camped before. I found the place much changed, and not for the better. I was visibly upset. There was a lot of garbage down here, left by previous campers. There was a big old blue tarp, and a large heavy grill left on the fire pit, not to mention a number of smaller things. This is what you call “leave no trace”??? If you can carry a big blue tarp and heavy grill down to the river, then you sure better be able to carry it back up. This is appalling in my opinion. Even creating large fire pits where there was previously nothing is completely irresponsible (and I saw quite a few big fire pits down here – all over the area – including a ginormous one). Palisade Falls used to be a very remote place, accessible to only a few hardy souls. Lately, however, it has become much more popular with certain groups, and I wonder that it is these groups that have contributed to trashing this beautiful area. I picked up some of the garbage and put it in my pack to carry up later. I did not pick up the tarp or grill, but even so, picking up this garbage would make my pack uncomfortably heavy for the long hike out of the canyon. Oh well, I guess I should have expected it.

I setup camp, ate lunch, and relaxed. I had wanted to try going down river to Petroglyph Falls again, but I did not have enough time. I was a bit sad about that, and I wish I could have stayed a third night down here, but it was not in the cards. I did walk down the river for a bit, and I found it very slow going, mostly due to the high flow and melting snow into the river along very slippery banks. I did not get very far. So anyhow, back to camp. I took photos of Lower Palisade Creek Falls and Palisade Falls in the evening, many photos from different angles were taken. The high flow limits the photographic possibilities for sure. You want to get right down to the river level? Not a chance of that happening. At first I had thought that the emerald fairies only play here in the summer (and if you have ever been here in the summer, it is easy to see them). But I was wrong. The emerald fairies play here in the spring as well. You can see them in my photo. Can you not?