Leon Turnbull Photography

Yeah this one would be awesome if there was more water in the river, but I was still really really pleased to find it. Actually, I thought there would be a lot more water flowing in the river. Indeed, I was sure of it. Last weekend, the river was flowing very well, and we had some more rain during the week, so I was sure it would still be flowing. I’m really not sure what happened, but the flow was way down.

This is Emigrant Gap again, and it is the third weekend in a row I went here. The road will be snowed in for good pretty soon, probably even by next weekend, so I do like to get up in this area when I can. There were no hunters this weekend. In fact, I did not see anyone at all (just one truck, and that is all for the entire morning). This time my goal was the East Fork of the North Fork American River, specifically the upper reaches of this river.

I was not sure there would be any waterfall up there at all, but after thoroughly examining my topo maps and Google Earth, I thought there would be a possibility of a small waterfall, and it certainly was worth trying, especially if the river was flowing, which of course I figured it must be, based on how it looked last week. I also figured it would be a very easy hike, which also sounded good to me after the killer one last weekend.

Well you know me, the Waterfall Madman does not end up doing anything easy, and this was no exception. The hike started off easy enough, a simple 1 mile jaunt on a logging road over towards the East Fork. It was cold too, 32 degrees when I started out. And the wind was crazy wind. It was very brisk and cold, but it felt terrific. It made me feel alive. It was a splendid day to be out in the beautiful creation, and I needed to be out there this day. I absolutely needed to be out in the wilderness. Then the road ended.

So what do I do now? Do I cut down to the river and try to work my way upstream? Or do I attempt to traverse the ridge, and then hopefully find a way down the cliff when I get to the waterfall (if there even is a waterfall). I chose the latter, and it was a good choice. At first, though, it did not seem so. The manzanita brush was thick along the ridge, much thicker than I expected. It seemed so open on Google Earth. This brush could be a show stopper for sure, but I continued on, hoping for a path through it, and indeed I found one. It was tough going but finally the terrain became more open, more like what I saw on GE. I saw no trace that any human had ever been up this way before. That’s the way I like it. The only thing I found was a bear path leading me through that brush. They are good at trampling through that stuff. Thank you, bears. I love you.

The ridge came to an end at the start of the gorge, and fortunately not too cliffy. I made my way down to the river, and there it was: a beautiful 34 ft. high waterfall dropping over a rock ledge into an icy pool. The Madman was very happy, the first to find and document this waterfall. It was quite a lot bigger than I expected to find (actually I didn’t think I’d find anything), and all in all, it really was not all that difficult to get here. I love it when a plan comes together. I will certainly come back when I know the river is flowing well (which will probably not be until the spring), and it will be awesome.

I headed back up to Emigrant Gap this weekend with much determination on the agenda. The snow was gone of course, and traffic was less on Emigrant Gap road in the early morning hours but there were still other drivers out and about. This is crazy, I thought. Only I am this crazy! I even saw a couple hunters, but since deer hunting season is over, they should not have been out here. I was a little annoyed about that. Where are the deer police when you need them?

Well I ran into a mud pile before I got to my selected trailhead. I decided to walk the rest of the way instead of getting myself stuck in a bucket. This added four miles to my hike and about 1000 ft. of elevation. Oh boy. I already knew that my hike was going to be a tough one. From the trailhead, I would drop 1000 ft. down to the river. Now I would have to climb back up 2000 ft. instead of 1000 ft. I was not exactly prepared for that.

I also decided to carry my big heavy lens on this hike, bad back and all. I did not want to, believe you me, but I knew that most likely the only view of this waterfall I would get would be from far across the canyon, and I would need it. I did need it, after all, as expected, but my back sure did not thank me for it.

The North Fork of the North Fork of the American River Canyon has been a thorn in my side more times than I can count. There are multiple waterfalls in this canyon, and some dandy big ones too, but getting to most of them is ridiculous. Impossible. Deadly. Just give up already, madman. No sir, I cannot give up. But I have been turned back on multiple occasions. (last week, for instance was one such occassion).

This week, I was hoping to get a good solid view of Middle North Fork Falls from across the canyon. I Google Earthed this potential route. Getting down to the bottom of it is totally out of the question, but all I really wanted was a good viewpoint. However, it did not look promising on Google Earth, due to the forest tree cover. I could not see a good potential unobstructed viewpoint. But I hoped for one anyway. Surely there would be.

From the “trailhead” at the end of the road (where I would have parked if there had been no mud piles), I descended into the forest. Down down down. 1000 ft. down. From time to time, I caught glimpses of the big waterfall across the canyon, but no viewpoint materialized. There were a couple spots where I would have had an amazing view of it, except for one or two trees in the way. If I could just cut those trees down, I thought. Huh. I kept going down. I was getting close to the cliff. The point of no return if I was not careful. Maybe from the edge of the cliff, there would be an unobstructed view. I came to a particularly steep section and the ground was rather crumbly, and sat down wondering how I could get down. Do I need to get out my rope here? Then I looked beside me and there was a rope. It was as though it magically appeared. I don’t think the bears put that there. Obviously someone had been down here before, but the rope ended and did not go all the way to the bottom. Then I saw it. There was a rock outcrop directly across from the falls, and it looked open. Could I get to it? I made my way over, climbed up onto the rock, and voila, I had my viewpoint. The sun was starting to get into my scene, unfortunately, since it took so long for me to get down there. But I had my viewpoint. It was indeed, basically, right on the edge of the cliff, directly across from the top of Middle North Fork Falls. The picture here is only the top part of the waterfall. The total height of the falls is 231 ft., and the top section shown here is about 100 ft. It continues for another 131 ft out of view. I did find a viewpoint of the entire waterfall, but it was a partially obstructed one. This was the best I could do for this waterfall but this was a sweet sweet place, and even though I couldn’t see the entire falls from here, I was a happy camper. I also got a long distance view of Burnett Canyon Falls, another waterfall in this crazy drainage that is impossible to get to.

Well enough of all that, it was time to head back up the mountain. My back was killing me when I got back to the car, but I survived. I wish I had brought my lunch though, it was noon and I was starving. I was not expecting this hike to take so long. It was an hour drive back to Auburn, where I re-fueled with a triple Western bacon cheeseburger. Yes, you heard that right. Triple. It was a very good day.

So for Halloween, my daughter Nekoda dressed up as “The Huntsman”, carrying a bow that was much larger than her. Really though she was more of a “huntress”, but she wanted to be called “Huntsman”. Ok, whatever. What does that have to do with waterfalls, you say? Well, let me tell you!

Our first big winter storm of the year came on Halloween, starting right at around trick or treat time. This seemed to upset a lot of people, especially about the timing of it all, and I heard a lot of whining about it. I could possibly understand such thinking in normal times , but we are in the midst of a three year drought, people. The reservoirs are at 30% capacity. If we have another bad winter (and we just might), we will be in a world of hurt next summer. What is more important here, Halloween or rain? It seems rather obvious to me. I was very proud of Nekoda, however, because a couple days before Halloween she prayed for rain to come, even though she knew the storm was coming on Halloween Day. It was a very unselfish prayer (unfortunately, I can’t say my son did the same – haha), but she also had no intention of letting any amount of rain ruin Halloween for her, and she didn’t. Both kids went out trick or treating in the rain, and had a great time.

Anyway on to my story. Saturday morning, I got up early and headed up into the mountains to Emigrant Gap. There was quite a bit more snow up there, more than I expected to see, and it was still snowing, but the road was clear. Many tire tracks had already headed down the road that morning. I was shocked. Normally, I never see many cars on this road. What is going on? Is everyone going to my waterfall? Then it became very clear to me: hunters! It was grand central in Emigrant Gap, filled with hunters, because it was the last weekend of deer hunting season. Ugh. Well, they did clear the road for me, but I was not happy to see so many people out this morning. Especially hunters.

I decided to go down to North Fork Falls first. And a good thing too. I’ve been here in the snow before, but it is a pretty waterfall when there is fresh snow, if you can get there, and the river was quite high, much higher than I expected (and quite a bit more flow than when I was here last year in the snow). Certainly a great start to the day.

My second hike was much more difficult, and unfortunately did not pan out in any new waterfalls. There was just too much snow, and the terrain was too dangerous and slippery with all the snow on the ground. By the time I got back, I was freezing cold, and soaking wet, from my feet up to my hands, but even though I did not get any more photos, it was still a great hike in the snow. About a half mile before I got back to the car, I see a hunter walking up the road. He asked me if I had seen his buddy. I said no. He was very surprised at this. No? Nope, haven’t seen anyone. There was only one set of tracks heading up the road as well, which were mine from earlier that morning, and I pointed this out to him. But isn’t the main road back that way? he said, pointing behind me. Uh no, it is the other way. You are going in the wrong direction, bub. Now, I thought he was going to have a heart attack right there. He was in shock. What? he said. He did not believe me, so I had to show him my GPS and show him where we were and where the main road was. I guess he was off in the bushes trying to find some deer and when he got back to the road he headed in the wrong direction, thinking he was following his buddy’s tracks back to the car, but instead he was following mine from that morning. He said if I had not showed up, he would have continued on forever. Or until he became lion chow. Or whichever came first. Well we walked back to the cars together (his buddy was waiting for him there), chatting about hunting, deer, and waterfalls. It was a fun day in the snow.

What is this? Water flowing in California in October? In the midst of a 3 year drought? Impossible, you say? Not so Batman!

This is the South Fork Feather River with a flow of 400 cfs. Yes, it is a dam controlled river. And yes, for a short period of time in the summer, there is a recreational release of water from the dam, mostly for the kayakers I guess (but also for waterfall hunters!). Blink and you will miss it, especially in this drought year. I heard about this release from the kayaking community. This is a popular run for them, as there are quite a few rapids and small falls, and then there is this waterfall as well. I decided to make the long drive up here and see if I could get down to this waterfall, which I had never been to before.

It is a very long drive. I remember last year when I went to Deadwood Creek Falls at Clipper Mills, I thought that was a very long drive. Well this was even longer, another 25 miles or so past Clipper Mills, along a very winding road. Ugh, no wonder I had not been out to this waterfall before. But you gotta do everything once, right?

I arrived at the dam at 6:30am, right on schedule. There were already kayakers here, camping overnight, I guess so they can get going on the river bright and early, or something or other. I tried not to wake them, but I think I did wake at least one. According to my calculations, I did not have much time to make it down to the waterfall because it would be in the sun already by 7:30am. And I wasn’t sure exactly how or if I could get down to it. I almost did not make it. My planned route took me to the river a bit downstream from the waterfall. It was rather cliffy down there, however, and I was blocked out from being able to continue upstream to the falls. Hum buggers! I was screwed. It was already almost 7:30am. I would have to climb all the way back up to the top to get around the cliff, then try to work my way back down again right at the waterfall. I did not have much hope of doing that, because I figured it would be far too cliffy there (which is why I did not try that way first!), and by the time I got back down, it would surely be well in the sun. Nonetheless, this is what I attempted to do. When I got to the top and at a location right above the falls, I followed a ridge back down. Surprisingly, very surprisingly, there was a possible route down which would not end up being certain death for me. In other words, it was not as cliffy as I anticipated. I was able to make my way all the way back down to the river, right to the base of the waterfall. And lo and behold, thank the good Lord, it was still in shade. I did not have a lot of time to take photos before the sun arrived on the scene, but it was enough. Awesomeness.

Now about the waterfall itself, I admit I was disappointed in its height. I was expecting it to be bigger. The kayakers claim this waterfall is 30 ft. high. Umm, yeah, not even close, guys. Why is it that kayakers always seem to grossly exaggerate waterfall heights? I wonder. Anyway, this waterfall is not 30 ft. high. I measured it a few different ways, and the most accurate measurement I came up with was 19 ft. That is the best I can do, guys. I cannot even give it another foot to make it an even 20. It might not even quite be 19 ft, but I think I got it right. Certainly, it is not any more than that.

Well I waited around to see if any kayakers were going to grace me with their presence, by dropping over this waterfall. I waited quite a while, but they never showed. Sleeping in? The sun was well up, so I finally headed back up the mountain. When I got back to my car, the sleeping kayakers were all gone, and so were their cars. I guess they were probably on the river yesterday, and not going back down today. I would have been waiting a long time had I stayed down at the falls. There were others that looked to be getting ready but had not started yet. Anyway, I had enough, and I still had that long long long drive back home. It was a fun day on the South Fork Feather River.

I bet you thought there were no waterfalls left flowing in California due to this nasty drought. Right? Well, besides a very select few such as Burney, Mossbrae, and McWay Falls that flow year round, most everything else is pretty much dry no doubt. But not this one.

The North Fork Stanislaus River is a controlled river flow, so I knew that it would be flowing well. The keepers of the water usually have this river flowing all summer long. So when the drought leaves everything else dry as a bone, coming here in the summer is a good option.

I had never been here before, however, and I had been putting it off for three years now. There were a multitude of reasons why I had not tried it before. Number one reason is the very long drive and the fact that I would have to get up at 3AM in order to be able to get down to the river in good lighting conditions. It is SOOOOOO DIFFICULT getting up that early in the summer time and I did not think I would make it this time either. In fact, I had turned off my alarm in the middle of the night, thinking I would skip it yet again. But at around 2:50AM, I was wakened due to my wife snoring. She is not a loud snorer (and she will tell you she does NOT snore – yeah right) but I need perfect quiet in order to fall to sleep. Well, I may as well get up and go, I thought.

I had known about the waterfalls on the North Fork Stanislaus River from the kayakers. The Devils Kitchen run is a popular one for them, so I am certainly not the first to document/discover these waterfalls. I had thought, though, that I might be the first to hike down to them. I certainly have never heard of anyone hiking down there before. So in a way this was another drawback for me. I was not sure if it would even be possible to hike down to the waterfall due to very steep terrain or thick brush. Even if I could get down to the river, would I be able to get any view of the waterfall? Also, I did not know exactly where the waterfall was on the river, though I had a good idea, and I also thought it might not even be 20 ft. high. A huge long drive and a big difficult hike for a 15 ft. waterfall? Not exactly something at the top of my list of things to do. But alas the stupid drought does not leave many other good options, so this one still seemed like a good plan to me.

There actually was a trail down to the river, so I suspect I am not the first to hike down there. Well, it is an extremely old trail, and very faint, too faint to even follow in a lot of places. It has certainly fallen into disrepute and probably not been used in a great many years. Except it IS still used … by bears. There was a very large amount of bear poop along the trail, and some of it was HUGE. Like so huge I think there must be grizzly bears down there or something. I cannot confirm that though. I did not see any. I did not see any black bears either. Just a heckuva lot of poopage.

Even though the trail was too faint to follow, the terrain was not too steep and not too brushy, so I was able to make it down to the river. From there I worked my way upstream and found this waterfall. The kayakers call it Portage 24, and I measured it to be 34 ft. high. I was very pleasantly surprised to find this beauty and to be able to get down to it without too much difficulty, and especially that it was bigger than 20 ft. high. There is another 25 footer shortly above this one, though not as nice, but I will share that photo later. The lighting was not very good for photos, however. Even though everything was in shade, the sun was getting ready to come up over the ridge in the distance, making everything a bit too bright. In another month or so, the sun would be at a much better orientation for morning photography, however, I am not sure it will be flowing in a month, as the water gurus will likely turn the tap off by then. It is a beautiful place, and I would like to go back someday, but the hike back up the mountain was killer, climbing 1500 ft. elevation back to the car. And then that long drive home. Whew!