Leon Turnbull Photography

On Christmas Eve I headed up to Downieville. My goal: Attempt to get down to the monster waterfall on Cherokee Creek.

I had little hope for success. On Google Earth, it looked incredibly steep, cliffy, brushy, and it did not look like there were any open views to the waterfall. It was worth a shot though, of course. 😉

I arrived at first light. It was steep but not cliffy or brushy (yet). There was a lot of poison oak on the descent, however. Once again though, I seemed to have managed to avoid getting the big itch. I’ve been doing well at that lately (knock on wood). I continued the descent, deftly avoiding touching anything of the oak variety. I came to the spot where I hoped I could get a view of the thing, on top of a cliff overlook. Oh, but there were just too many trees in the way. It was so close. It would have been a magnificent view point if it were completely open. If I hung my body out over the cliff, whilst holding onto a flimsy tree branch, then I could get a pretty clear view (but uh, no thank you on that one). I thought I was done for, and there would be no further entry down the mountain. But then I saw that I could continue down further without any death defying maneuvers necessary. Just a little further down and I came to this spot with a clear view of Cherokee Creek Falls. This plunge shown here is 79 ft. high. Just as I got here the fog rolled in, completely obscuring my view of the waterfall. But I absolutely could not leave here without a good decent photo. So I waited. And I waited. And I waited. Finally, the fog cleared slightly. Just enough to take a decent photo.

There is a lower tier of this waterfall, about the same height as the upper tier. I was able to continue further down the mountain, but I could not find any clear spots to photograph the lower tier. The terrain got too cliffy to go much further, so I headed back up the mountain. I still had more waterfalls I wanted to visit this morning and I had already taken much longer than I wanted at Cherokee Creek, but it was worth it. What a magnificent waterfall.

Here is some perspective for you of 144 ft. high Canyon Creek Falls. The North Fork American River is below right. You can see Bogus Point straight ahead and Lovers Leap peaking out behind it with a nice bit of fresh snow on it and the surrounding mountains. I have never seen the waterfalls on unmarked streams flowing off the distant mountains before.

This photo is just for my sister in law. She’s always asking me why I never show any sky in my waterfall photos. Well it’s not like I hate the sky. What she doesn’t understand is that sky normally does not work in waterfall images. It is usually detrimental to the image and intrusive. Plain blue sky is boring and overcast sky is ugly. Either one or other of these are almost always present when I go hiking, or else more likely the sky is non existent deep inside the canyon where the waterfall is. It is better to focus on the waterfall itself and usually it is the only option. But sometimes sky works very well and this was such a case. The light clouds and fog added a lot of interest in this scene to the surrounding mountains, and a superb sense of scale for the waterfall. It is an amazing spot.

Some of you were wondering where I would go after a huge rainstorm, like the one we just had (or more accurately, supposedly had). There is only one answer to that question: Canyon Creek Falls.

The so-called storm of the year, hugely over-hyped by the media. The biggest storm in six years. Storm-aggedon. Rain-ocalypse (as I called it). Binky (as a friend of mine was calling it). I think not. Okay okay, well I think they did get quite a bit of rain in the Bay area, and also in northern California. But it seemed to bypass the northern foothills and Tahoe area. We were supposed to get 5-7 inches in the northern foothills, and we only received about half that amount. We did get much needed precipitation, but in fact, the storm last week was bigger than the one this week, for our area at least.

I was anticipating waking up to see the North Fork American River with at least 8000 cubic feet per second flowing, and hoping for even twice that flow. It would have been the case if the rain forecast had been true. However, it was only at 4000 cfs, and that is the amount it peaked at for this storm. It was only half the amount that I expected it to be.

I have been wanting to see Canyon Creek (which flows into the North Fork) at monster flow for many years now. It is gnawing at my insides. Driving me to insanity. Yet, Canyon Creek Falls continues to be an elusive beast for me. Oh yes, it would be flowing very well, fantastically well. But it would not be the monster flow that I want to see before I die. That I must see before I die. So … I drove up the hill and hiked in to Canyon Creek Falls anyway.

The flow was almost identical to the time I was here last. I compared photos from last time, and I could tell it was just slightly more this time around. Not monster. But still awesome. The rain was done for the time being. The sun was trying to come out. The view was astounding. I could see waterfalls flowing off the distant mountains on unmarked streams. I had never seen that before. The North Fork American River was remarkable, flowing strong far below me. Light clouds and fog were enveloping Lovers Leap and other mountains. It is an incredible spot and I was happy to be there.

Enjoy the present. We can thank the Lord for every drop of rain we get, it is all so much needed. Perhaps next time I’ll see that monster flow. Bring on the next rain-ocalypse.

This is the upper tier of Little Robinsons Valley Falls, 61 ft high. To get to this ledge I had to very carefully traverse a slick wet ledge with a big dropoff into the raging creek below, at the top of another big waterfall. Fun times. Seriously though it wasn’t that bad. The last sentence is for my wife, in case she is reading this. LOL.

Starting tonight they say we are going to get slammed with our biggest storm in six years. Awesome! We should get at least five inches of rain in the foothills and multiple feet of snow on the mountains. Bring it on, I say. We so need this. There will be much more water flowing after this storm. Thank the Lord. Saturday will be an amazing amazing amazing waterfall day. I’m supposed to be at my daughter’s dance studio all day on Saturday. Humph.

Well from the last two storms we had 9.5 inches of rain in the Northern Sierra Nevada foothills. The snow levels were high, however. Bad news for skiers but good news for waterfall hunters. It is unfortunate though, because we desperately need that snow pack. Nonetheless, an interesting window opened this weekend. In particular for me, Foresthill Rd would have no snow on it.

I thought long and hard about one waterfall in particular: 462 ft. high New York Canyon Falls, my all-time favourite waterfall. I would love to see that one up close at full blast. This could be a unique and very rare opportunity. Since the rain fell on Wednesday, Thursday would have been the best day for waterfallin’. However, I just could not take a day off work this week. That left Saturday. By that time, the North Fork American River was down to under 1000 cfs. I was really hoping that another inch of rain Friday night would fall, bringing up the river again but the river was down even more when I woke up on Saturday. It seemed as though it did not rain an inch overnight as it was supposed to do.

So I made the executive decision to try a different hike: Little Robinsons Valley. I have wanted to check this one out as well and it seemed like a good opportunity. It was cold and blustery and foggy and still raining when I started my hike early in the morning from Robinson Flat. Sounds like a perfect day to be out hiking. And it was. A short hike down the trail, then head off through the mud and brush towards the creek. There was lots of water everywhere. In the creek, on the trail, off the trail. The creek was running hard when I arrived. Could I get down safely to the bottom of the falls? It was surprisingly not difficult, though definitely a bit tricky because of the slick wet rocks. I was careful though, and I made it right to the base of the falls. I am very surprised (yet again) that no one seems to have known about this waterfall, especially since it is so close to Robinson Flat campground and really quite easy to get to. Of course, in the summer the creek will be dry. But right now it was awesome. There are three waterfalls here, though I would consider them all as a single tiered waterfall 109 ft. high. This final drop is 48 ft. I have more pictures of this one to come. It is an amazingly beautiful area, and there were waterfalls coming off the mountain from unnamed and unmarked side streams. It was magnificent.

As it turned out, I think New York Canyon would have been awesome after all. I suppose I should have gone there instead, but Little Robinsons Valley was pretty darn incredible too. Anyway, I have other “secret” plans for NYC later. Wink wink.