Leon Turnbull Photography

The last few weeks my hikes have just been very hard, going down to the bottom of steep, deep, crazy canyons. Just plain hard. This week I wanted to just do something easier. Well, that was the plan anyway.

So I drove up to Wrights Lake. That should be an easy hike, right? No steep crazy canyons up there, right? With not much snow yet, the road is still open, but it was definitely cold and icy. It was 26° when I started the hike an hour before sunrise in the dark.

I figured it would take about an hour to get to the first waterfall. There was lots of water flowing everywhere, and a lot of swamps to negotiate. You would not expect to see this in November, but we did have the most rain in October since 1962. Anyway, all was going well … Until I got to the creek crossing. The creek was flowing deep and strong, and I could see no way to cross, plus it was also very brushy getting down to it. Finally, I found a spot and was able to rock hop and wade across the creek, but it took quite awhile and now I was late, about 30 minutes late getting to the waterfall. When I got there I realized that in order to get in a position to photograph the waterfall, I had to wade across the creek again. I was on the wrong side. Sigh.

It was all worth it though. This waterfall is not a big one, 20 feet high exactly, and just barely qualifies for inclusion on my website, but it is a highly interesting waterfall shooting out in multiple segments. This segment shown here was the most interesting one, tucked away in a narrow channel. It was very cool.

After this, I had to hike another mile and a half cross country to the next waterfall. The sun was already up now. Would I get there in time?

This was the second falls I found last weekend. This is 63 ft. high. Sweet.

Today (Saturday) was probably the last day of the year that you will be able to get into most of the High Country until spring. We have had record rainfall this October in northern California, I think it may end up being the most rain we have had for October in over 66 years, dating back to 1950 and beyond, but most of that has come down as rain in the mountains, not snow. So that means the waterfalls are all flowing very well for now, but we need that snow pack. Tomorrow we are finally getting snow in the mountains, and that means most of the roads will be snowed in and no longer accessible. I tried to take advantage of this final day.

Unfortunately, my Plan A backfired, because although there was not any snow, there were huge mud puddle pits, due to all the rain. I kinda suspected this might be the case, and I did not want to drive through them and risk getting stuck in the mud. So onto Plan B.

The Plan B hike was not a particularly difficult hike, and yet no one has probably ever been to this waterfall before, or even knows about it. I did not see any evidence that anyone had ever been down here before, though it is illogical that no one has seen it. In any case, mine is the first documentation of this magnificent waterfall. It is 122 ft. high, and it is a spectacular cascade.

I initially hoped to get down to the bottom of it, but it was very steep, and worse than that, it was extremely brushy. The rocks were wet and slick as ice. I was soaking wet from trampling through the brush and swamps thus far, and going any further down would have been very bad. I decided to attempt to find a view from the top of the ridge instead. I wasn’t sure that I would be able to find one, but I got lucky. I worked my way down through the brush, and towards the end of the ridge, and I found a superb view of the falls. I dared not go any further to the end, that would have been extremely stupid. The rock sloped down from here and over a 200 or so ft. cliff. Being that it was so slick, I would have certainly slid right off and over the cliff. I have no doubt about that. So obviously, I stayed safe. Good idea, madman.

Well the hike back up to the car was all right, but my back was hurting by the end of it. It has not been hurting in a long while, so I don’t know what is up with it. Same pack weight as last week, and an easier hike to boot. Ugh. I did not have any rain all day long, and the weather was good, but I was still wet and cold from trampling through the brush and swamps. It was a very good day.

So … this was a killer tough hike … but very awesome.

Going back into that nefarious canyon (you know the one – see my previous post Thorn In My Side) before it is closed off for winter, I have wanted to try to get down to this spot for awhile now, but I knew it would be tough. I had to give it a shot.

The descent is about 1200 ft. in less than a mile. If that doesn’t give you the willies, I don’t know what will. Oh perhaps the cliffs will. Yeah we had some of those.

It was actually more than 1200 ft. too, because I took a couple detours. The first detour was to Burnett Canyon. I was 95 percent sure that I would not be able to get to this one. Nonetheless, I had to try, right? And yeah I got down to the top of the falls, but then it was nothing but cliff. No way to get any further along to see the waterfall. Not even a small view of it. Well that was not unexpected, was it, so I scrambled back up the mountain. That detour was probably a couple hundred feet extra.

There is a rope descending down the last 500 ft. to the bottom of the canyon. Believe me, you need to use it the entire way. It is incredibly steep and very difficult. I went down quite a distance. However, when I came to the section where the rope descends along the edge of a 200 ft. cliff dropoff with a very steep descent along the top of it, I balked. I am really freaked out about stuff like this. I like to live. So I thought, I will have to call it quits, and back up the mountain I went. That was probably another 250 ft. for that detour.

When I got back up to the top, I looked at my map. Perhaps there was another way down that was not so crazy. And yeah, actually, maybe there was. It was not too late, I thought I may as well try it. The descent was steep for sure, but it was not cliffy and I did not need my rope. Well I take that back. It did get cliffy near the bottom, and I did need to use my rope for a very short section. But definitely not a 500 ft. long section. I found a way through the cliffs, and got a glimpse of a couple waterfalls. I was giddy.

The first one I wanted to see was Lower Burnett Canyon, but when I finally got to the bottom , I found there was no way to get to that falls. The cliffs descended right to river level on both sides of the river. This was the one out of the three waterfalls that I thought for sure I would be able to see. Nothing doing. This was unexpected, and a bummer. But there was still the other one.

I know of only one other person who has been down here before. Clearly, with that rope being there, others obviously have been down. I have only seen one photo, though, and his photo made this waterfall seem to be very small, 10-15 ft. high at most. Google Earth also seems to think this waterfall is only 15 or so, maybe 20 ft. max. So really, this one was very low priority for me, and I did not even have it on my website, thinking it less than 20 ft. high. Does my photo make it seem this is a small waterfall as well? It is actually 51 ft. high, about 3 times higher than what I was anticipating, and it is a drop dead gorgeous straight drop into a magnificent plunge pool. Wow what an amazing waterfall. It was very unexpected.

I would love to come back here again, but I don’t know if I will, considering how difficult it was. I climbed 500 ft. back up the mountain, and nearly bonked. I still had another 700 ft. to climb too, but I rested, ate some lunch, and eventually got back up to my car. It was an amazing day in that nefarious canyon.

Our FIRST rain storm of the new waterfall season was a whopper. Where else would I go for my first waterfall hike of the new season except to my favorite river, the North Fork American River. We got 2.5 inches of rain on Friday, and the river was up on Saturday morning, but not as high as I thought it might go. Nonetheless, it was high enough. High enough for a rainy day hike and to find a new waterfall in the process.

It is a long hike down to the falls, yet only 4.5 miles. Starting my hike at 7AM, I hoped to get down to it in 2 hours. That seems reasonable, does it not? But at 10AM, I was still quite a distance from the waterfall, and I almost turned back. The terrain was getting steep and brushy, I was hiking through the woods with no more trail to follow, I was soaking wet from hiking through the brush, and there was a big storm coming in the afternoon. I wanted to be back at the car before that started. However, I continued on; it could not be much further, could it? I finally got down to the falls around 10:30AM.

Technically it is a not a “new” waterfall. Kayakers have gone over this falls before, but access for “normal” people is pretty much out of the question. Other than kayakers, I do not know of anyone who has been here (although I’m sure some have). I won’t say how I got here, it was all perfectly “legal” of course. I will say that you do need to cross the river. Of course, that is impossible when the river is high. On Saturday morning, however, the river was at 180 cfs. That is far downstream, up at the waterfall it is probably 1/3 of that amount. So basically, I thought, it might be crossable or it might not. I was able to cross the river without much difficulty. The river was flowing well, but there were some mellow sections. No problem. It was darn cold, though. It was wet and showery all morning, and I was drenched by the time I got to the falls. Was it worth getting so wet? Was it worth the effort and needing to take an extra long time to get down to it, and then having to hike back in the rain? Heck yes! What a magnificent 40 ft. plunge dropping into a narrow spectacular gorge. This was the LAST waterfall on the North Fork that I had yet to see, and after more than one try previously, I finally made it. Bagged! I have seen all eight waterfalls now on this amazing river. See my website if you want to know how to get to this one.