Leon Turnbull Photography

If I am going to get up super early in the morning to go hiking, I need to be motivated. Some weekends I feel more like sleeping in than getting up to go hiking. Funny that. Sometimes, it does not take much to motivate me, other times it takes a sledgehammer. This weekend was one of those sledgehammer type weekends. I did not feel much like driving a long way from home to go on a big hike, so I was initially thinking I would just go somewhere close to home, but I wasn’t really much into that either when I thought about my options for close to home hikes. As I pondered my dilemna, I thought about Deadwood Creek. I had heard of a big waterfall on this creek a couple years ago, and have been wanting to try to get to it for a long time, especially since a friend recently sent me some photos of the waterfall (actually, photos of him kayaking off the waterfall – he is one of my crazier acquaintances). It seemed to be a good time to try it. Even though it was a long drive from home, I was now motivated. The plan was set. This was on Tuesday. Now I just had to wait for the weekend to arrive!

Saturday arrived, and I was still motivated. Excited even. I got up early and started the long drive out to the trailhead. Did I say it was a long drive? Deadwood Creek is way out in the land of nowhere, many miles past Clipper Mills (if you know where that is, and you probably do not). It is about an hour drive past Marysville, well you probably have heard of that town at least. It was a freezing cold day, below 20 degrees, and as I drove past Clipper Mills, I came upon snow. Oops, I did not anticipate this. The last few miles requires driving on a dirt forestry road. With snow on the ground, would I even be able to reach the trailhead? The answer was a big fat NO. The road had obviously been driven on, however, there was a big snow patch stopping me from proceeding. If I had more clearance on my SUV I could have made it, but I did not want to risk getting stuck way out here, that would be very uncool. So … what do I do? Go home? After driving all the way out here to nowhere land, and not even able to start any hike at all? Nope. Well, I suppose I could just hike along the dirt road to the trailhead. It would be about 3 miles. So instead of a difficult 3 mile hike, I would have a difficult 9 mile hike. I had the time, and most importantly, I still had the motivation. Time to hike.

With the late start and the extra long hike, I would be getting to the waterfall much later than expected (if at all), but from my prior calculations I knew that the sun would not be hitting the waterfall until at least noon. I had loads of time. If it were otherwise, I would not even have started the hike. Photography is perhaps THE most critical part of my waterfallin’ exploits. I absolutely hate getting to a waterfall and not being able to take a good photograph of it. Sometimes it is just not possible to get to waterfalls in good lighting conditions, but I do a lot of preparation beforehand to make sure the odds are in my favor. For this one, I should certainly have lots of time but already it seemed the sun was high in the sky and shining down into the canyons. Did I make an error in my calculations?

The trail down to Deadwood Creek and the North Yuba River is a dirt road, descending a whopping 1200 ft. in 1.5 miles. It was going to be a killer hike back out of the canyon. At the top of the trail I saw bear prints in the snow. Aren’t these dudes supposed to be sleeping right now? Hmmm. The hike down was fairly quick, and I saw no bears or other wildlife, except for some horrid squirrels and the thunderous quail. At the bottom of the canyon there is a powerhouse; they suck the lifeblood out of Deadwood Creek above the waterfall and siphon it down into the powerhouse along the river. Argh. Why do they need a powerhouse here? It irks me to no end. Frankly, I was not even sure there would be any flow at all in the creek. Not because of the powerhouse, but because it was so darn cold. I really thought the creek would be completely frozen. That would be just splendid. Drive all the way out here, hike all the way down to the creek, and then find no waterfall at all.

When I finally got to the bottom, I could see (happily) that I was wrong about the flow in the creek. It was flowing, and at a pretty darn good clip to boot. The last section down to the falls is steep so I used my rope to help me scale down the treacherous slope. I felt like a canyoneer. Once at the bottom, I needed to cross the creek and make my way up to the falls on the other side. Deadwood Creek Falls drops 43 ft. into a large and deep pool, and I was able to get down right in front of the falls. It was icy and cold and magnificent. And the water in the pool was just wow, such an incredibly intense blue green color. I was so happy how my photograph turned out, and how my camera portrayed this amazing scene before me. And the hike back out of the canyon? Much easier than I anticipated. I had heard horror stories about the hike up, a hike that would suck the lifeblood out of you worse than the powerhouse. Not so. It was not easy by any means, but the grade on the trail was mostly very good, with plenty of switchbacks. I have done far worse hikes than this one. It was surely a beautiful cold winter day in the North Yuba River canyon.

Here is one more view of North Fork Falls in the snow. Which do you like better?

We are getting a huge storm this weekend here in northern California. Up to 8 feet of snow over the weekend in the Tahoe area, up to 14 feet in the Shasta area. This storm will bombard us right through almost to Christmas Day. It is going to be crazy crazy!

This past weekend I headed up into the mountains arriving in Emigrant Gap early in the morning. There was fresh snow on the road but only a few inches, so the road was still fine to drive. My plan was not to return to North Fork Falls. However, I just could not resist. I said a couple weeks ago that I would love to shoot this waterfall in the snow. Indeed, I have been wanting to shoot this waterfall in the snow for a couple years now. The timing this weekend was just perfect. With another storm coming on Sunday, the road to North Fork Falls will be snowed in now until spring. There will be no more opportunities this year. I had to go to North Fork Falls, and it was absolutely stunning.

I parked along the road and hiked the short half mile through the snow to the waterfall. Once at the falls, there is a very steep descent down to the river. It is difficult to do this when the ground is dry, but when there is snow on the ground, it is certainly a bit dangerous. I did not intend to go all the way down to the river (like I did last time), I just wanted to go down to a certain viewpoint, which is easier to do, but still potentially treacherous with snow on the ground. I used my rope again to make the descent to be certain of no difficulties. This was actually the third time this month I had to use my rope (twice at this waterfall). Once down at the overlook, I was totally inspired by the beauty of the scene. Fresh snow all around me. It was incredible. Unfortunately, my cable release decided to stop working so I had to use my camera timer to take my photos. It worked out all right, but a cable release is so much better to use.

I was a bit longer at North Fork Falls than I intended, but figured I still had time to do the other hike. I wanted to try to get to East Fork Falls, a waterfall that is hidden in a remote canyon on the East Fork of the North Fork of the American River. I am not sure the best way to get to this waterfall, but I definitely picked the wrong route. I hiked two miles up a dirt logging road (which was not dirt because it was covered with fresh snow). It was a gorgeous hike through the snow. There were plenty of fresh animal tracks all around: deer, bobcat, coyote, squirrel, rabbit and probably some others too. These all must have been from that same morning, because it had snowed the previous day, yet I did not see any of these animals (except one squirrel). After hiking two miles, things get difficult. Somehow you need to scramble down the cliff to the river. It is about 1000 ft. straight down, very cliffy, and with the snow on the ground, potentially very dangerous. I was thinking that I would not even try it. However, I came to a clear cut area, and I could hear what may have been a waterfall or the waterfall down at the river. I thought I was too far downstream to be close enough to “the” waterfall, but there may have been “a” waterfall down there. I decided to go down through the clear cut area. It was steep, and very difficult, and I had to be extra careful because I did not want to twist my ankle again, which would have been very easy to do with all the mess from the clear cut. I made it down successfully, but I did not see any waterfall. I decided to go upstream some more, however the route got too cliffy. I realized I was still very far downstream from the waterfall, and there was no way I could make it by the cliffs. So I retreated and found a different route back up. The loggers must have cut a path down the mountain for some purpose (perhaps to get down or their equipment down more easily). It was not a trail, but it was a path that just went straight down the mountain, no messing around at all. I thought it would be easier to go back up this path. But 1000 ft. straight up in less than half a mile is brutal to say the least. By the time I finally got back to the road, I was completely wiped out. I rested on the road for quite a while before hiking back to the car (thankfully, the hike back on the road was mostly downhill, so that part was easy at least). It was a gorgeous day and I was very pleased I finally saw North Fork Falls in the snow.

The view of the North Fork American River from the Canyon Creek Falls viewpoint is simply stellar. It is of course my favorite river on this planet. On this morning the river was raging at around 7000 cubic feet per second. By Sunday afternoon, it actually got up to 30,000 cfs. Wow, I wish I would have gotten out to see it then. If it was clear, you can see Lovers Leap from here, which also has some waterfalls on it, if they are flowing. You can also see some ephemeral falls at the top center of this photo, and in the lower left, the main Canyon Creek trail going down towards the river. It is a very awesome view.

With all this rain lately, I wanted to get out a few more times to enjoy the waterfalls (before they all dry up), so I headed out one evening to Traverse Creek Falls. It has been awhile since I have been to this one, but usually I go at least once a year.

I arrived at the trailhead late in the day and started the short hike into the falls. I knew it was going to be interesting at the very first small stream crossing, at which I had to make a significant effort to jump across. Hmmm, I never had to do that before. At this point already I knew the creek was in full torrent mode, higher than I have ever seen it before. Traverse Creek Falls has four modes: Dry, Single, Double, and Torrent Mode. I may need to add a fifth mode: Super Torrent.

Along the way, I came across some people carrying kayaks back up the trail. They were out for the afternoon enjoying themselves on the waterfall. When the creek is high like this, kayakers like going over this 30 ft. high waterfall – crazy people if you ask me, but they seemed to be very happy on the walk back (happy that they didn’t break anything, perhaps?). It is too bad I did not arrive 30 minutes or so earlier, or I could have seen and photographed them going over the falls.

The trail descends steeply to Traverse Creek, at which point you need to walk along the creek bed to the brink of the waterfall, then climb past the waterfall and descend on ropes to the bottom. With the creek very high, it was quite a challenge to walk along the creek bed. There were some spots that the water was practically right up against the bank, making it difficult to continue without getting wet feet. Again, I have never seen it like this before. Hmmm. Much higher and I would not have made it at all (and I suspect it was a lot higher last weekend). I climbed up past the waterfall and began the descent to the bottom. This part was also very tricky because the ground was wet and slick. There are ropes, but there is one spot that is especially difficult when the ground is wet, and instead of risking it, I got out my own rope to help me down this part (the rope that is there is not in the correct position for this section).

Once down at the bottom, I set up shop to photograph the falls, before it got too dark. The waterfall was absolutely incredible, and there was a lot of mist making it very difficult to get in close to the falls to photograph. I had to move back a bit and shoot more of a wide angle shot of the waterfall. This worked quite all right. There was a bit of fog above the falls, and on the drive back home the fog was extremely thick on the road. I kinda wished there was more fog down by the waterfall. Oh well. On the plus side, I did not see any garbage this time down by the falls. Usually, I have to truck out a big bag every year cuz certain idiots like to come here in the summer and leave their crap behind. I am very happy to see that this place is not a trash heap anymore.