Leon Turnbull Photography

I went back to Soda Springs Rd this weekend, this time starting from Foresthill. The road is much better from that direction, and not nearly as bone-jarring. My plan was to hike the trail from Soda Springs Rd down to Palisade Falls, a trail which I had found last week. It was going to be a doozie of a hike.

I left super early from home as usual, as I wanted to start hiking before sunrise. I had no idea how long it would take me to get down to the river, but I knew I had to be down there before 8AM, when the sun would start to hit the waterfall. I estimated it would be about a 2 mile hike and a 2000 ft. elevation loss. That is steep!

As I drove up the road in the dark, I saw my first bear of the year! This made me very excited. It seems that I do not see much in the way of bears and wildlife compared to other people, even though I am out in the wilderness almost every weekend, and usually at hours when wildlife is active too. I don’t know what it is. I have never ever seen a bear in any national park, which is very odd. I saw two bears last year (2011) in Auburn in the spring, but I have not seen any since then. So I was definitely excited to see one today. It was dark, so no pictures were possible. He was along the road, and when he saw me driving up he started lumbering away from me up the road. He kept looking back to see if the firebeast was still coming, and when he saw that it was he would turn and start lumbering away again. Finally he got off the road into the bushes. It was actually very near to where I saw one a few years ago when I hiked to Wabena Falls, and rather near the trailhead where I would be hiking today. (p.s. does anyone out there besides myself and my son Jadon know what a firebeast is?).

I arrived at the trailhead and it was just getting light. I was able to see the entire way down the canyon all the way to the river. You could even hear the river, though it was not flowing strong. I kinda started wondering what I was getting into. It was a long long way down, and steep. Did I mention it looked steep? It seemed like the hike would be on par with the Wabena Falls hike, the craziest hike I have ever done, and that would mean I would be late getting back home, and I needed to be home by 1PM or else. Well, I decided to go for it anyway, and I am sure glad I did.

The trail was not nearly as bad as I anticipated. It was actually a fantastic, well graded trail. Yes you lose 2100 ft. in elevation in about 3 or so miles, but it did not have many steep spots, it just had a steady grade and got the job done. The hike back up was indeed a doozie, and I was worn out by the end of it, but compared to Wabena Falls, it was a cake walk. There was only one really tough spot, and it came near the end where the trail crossed a ravine. There was a steep dropoff where you had to go down, then clamber back up to the trail on the other side. Fortunately there were ropes there to ease the process, but even with ropes it was a bit on the scary side. I made it across the ravine, and continued down to the river.

It took about an hour and 15 minutes to get down, and I arrived at Palisade Falls at about 7:15AM. Perfect timing. I was happy. I noticed some campers down at the bottom of the falls, but it seemed like they were still sleeping. I saw no one moving about, even when I left about an hour later. I think that is a great thing about camping, you can sleep in to your heart’s desire (unless you are a photographer of course). The North Fork American River was flowing at about 50 cubic feet per second (cfs) when I checked it the previous day. It is not a lot of flow, and the waterfall was not roaring by any means, but it was quite nice. Pretty is sometimes nicer than roaring, and 47 ft. high Palisade Falls was certainly pretty. Another nice thing about the low flow is that you can get right down to the river side, for a great perspective from below. This would not have been possible earlier in the summer, and although I did have to get my feet slightly wet, it was certainly worth it to get a shot from down beside the river.

Well it was after 8AM now, and the sun was starting to strike the waterfall just as I had calculated (Photographer’s Ephemeris is such a great tool for doing this). I packed up my things and started the long slow slog back up the mountain. It took me 2 hours and 15 minutes to get back up. I took it slow and steady, drank lots of water, and had quite a few rests, but my legs were dead tired at the end. I am sure glad this was not a Wabena Falls caliber of hike, as I don’t know that I would have made it today if that was the case, but I will definitely be returning on this hike and trail again in the future. It was a great morning on my all time favorite river.

This photo was taken a bit after sunrise. There was not any great sunrise color on this day, but the rainbow over the canyon really made this shot I think (a double rainbow, even better). What you are looking at is the North Fork American River canyon. The mountain is majestic Snow Mountain rising 8074 ft. above sea level (on the right, poking up in the distance is Devils Peak). In the spring, the second highest waterfall in California (2200 ft. high) tumbles vigorously down the slope of Snow Mountain, and if you look closely you can see the path it takes in this image. Of course in late August, it is all dried up, but I think this spot would be a fantastic viewpoint of the waterfall in the spring, especially at sunrise or sunset (that is, if you could get to this spot in the spring, which is not likely, but that is a different story).

The story for this day was not to shoot sunrise from this location, but instead to find a new and quick way down to Heath Falls on the North Fork American River. It was going to be epic! But alas, it was not to be. It was not the cliffs that did me in here, it was the manzanita brush. On Google Earth, the brush did not look bad at all, and even from the cliffs here looking down, the brush did not look bad, but once I started going down, it eventually just became too thick and un-manageable. I was forced to turn back. I was bummed!

For a brief minute or two, I thought I was going to make it. There was actually an old trail here leading down to the bottom, something totally unexpected. It must have been an old miner’s trail, and from the look of it, it had not been traversed since the mining days. Nonetheless it was there and it started out very good, however once it hit the thick brush, it disappeared very quickly. With all the fires and lightning strikes happening in the Sierra this week, I kept thinking how nice it would be if one happened here to clear out all this brush, but it seems that is not going to happen this year either. I tried many different routes to try to get through the brush, and I just could not do it. In the end, I thought maybe from the other side of the ravine might be a possibility, which is down to the left of this view, and I want to return here again to give it another go, but that will not happen this year.

Some of you may know the “normal” way to get to Heath Falls is a long, difficult hike about 6.5 miles one way, impossible to get there in good lighting conditions on a day hike, and it also involves a sketchy crossing of private property to reach it. I was hoping to find a better and quicker route, and that involved driving from Soda Springs down through the Cedars and across the North Fork American River. The road from Soda Springs down to the river is absolutely awful. Indeed I would say it is almost as bad as the Bowman Lake road. If you are familiar with that road you know this one must be quite bad if I make this comparison. It is just extremely rocky and bumpy. Your jaw will be rattling for days afterward. For about 2 miles on each side of the river, and stretching apparently all the way down to Heath Falls, a group called the Cedars owns the land, and they do not want anyone else sniffing on the land either. You would think they would keep their road in better condition at least.

After trying Heath Falls, I was still in an exploring mood so I went further up Soda Springs Road in search of a trail down to Palisade Falls. I knew there was a trail down to it on this side of the river, but I did not know where it was, so I took a wild guess on my map. It was not exactly where I thought it might be, but I eventually did find it. I did not go down because I had already spent too much time trying to get down to Heath Falls and it was too late in the morning, but this is one I would really like to return to, perhaps even this year (though I am not anxious to brave driving this road again anytime soon). I think also that it will be of epic steepness comparable to the Wabena Falls trail. Sounds like fun. Maybe.

This is another view from the bottom of Horsetail. I like it because it shows off the waterwheel at the bottom of the falls.

I still haven’t got much else to show you. I did not go hiking last weekend. Instead I stayed home and did yard work and watched Olympics. At least I got exercise from the yard work (but not from watching the Olympics). I do plan to go hiking this weekend so hopefully I will have something new to share next week if it all goes as planned.

Here’s another view of the bottom of Horsetail Falls, this time with a bit of a glimpse of the upper section as well. I hope you’re not getting tired of Horsetail Falls photos because I do not have much else to share right now. Waterfall season is over in this area of northern CA. Most waterfalls now are dry or just trickles. It is mostly too hot for hiking anyway. I’d love to go somewhere out of state but we don’t have money or vacation time for that. Horsetail Falls is an exception though and still flies strong. I may even try to get back there one more time this summer. It is certainly a fantastic location.

On Friday evening I took my son Jadon on a fun hike to Shealor Lake, near Silver Lake. He had asked me earlier in the week if he could go on a hike with me, and I immediately said “absolutely”! He usually does not want to go hiking with me, so I was surprised he wanted to this week, and definitely pleased that he did, but where would be a good place to go? I thought Shealor Lake would be a good option, as it was not overly difficult, and also there is (supposedly) a couple waterfalls there as well. The hike was really really good. There was a nice stiff breeze keeping us on the cool side (though it was 100 degrees in Sacramento), the hike was gorgeous with great views, and the lake itself is very pretty. The waterfall was completely dry however. I was not expecting much, but I thought it would be flowing a little bit at least. I definitely will be returning here next spring. Well we took pictures of the lake then headed back up the hill to our car. I thought we could go on one more little hike to Granite Lake Falls, which I thought might be flowing a bit better. Only barely. That waterfall was just a trickle, not even worth a picture. So all in all, I had a great evening with my son, and a great hike to a beautiful lake, but no waterfalls.

On Saturday, we were not planning to do anything, but when my wife woke up (at 11AM!), she came up with an idea. Let’s all go to Lake Tahoe for the day! Great idea. So after eating lunch at home, we headed up the hill. First off, we went on a short hike to Upper Glen Alpine Falls. It was quite a hot day, even up in the mountains. Gee whiz, I thought we were going to Tahoe to escape the heat! We arrived at the waterfall, which was flowing ok. I like Upper Glen Alpine Falls a lot because it does not need a lot of water in the creek to look nice. There was indeed not a lot of water flowing in the creek, and it was easy to rock hop across to the other side. I’ve never been able to do that before. We relaxed in the shade on the rocks along with another couple that was already there and took some pictures. Then I decided to do something only slightly crazy with my kids. Take a shower under the waterfall! It was actually quite fun, and quite cold. My kids did it also and had a blast. Tara decided to stay dry and miss the fun, but she did take photos of us crazies. After this we went to the beach at Fallen Leaf Lake, where the kids had fun swimming in the lake, and jumping off a big rock that was in the lake. Finally, after dinner, we went over to Eagle Falls for sunset. Even late in the day, there seemed to be a large amount of people at the falls. There were no clouds so I just took photos of the waterfall, which also is on its last legs for the summer, but I scrambled down the cliff to the bottom of the first tier. It was steep and a bit sketchy in places, but I made it down safely, then crossed the creek to take photos. There seemed to be a constant stream of people at the top of the falls, looking over the edge, and taking pictures; waiting patiently … not my favorite thing to do, but thankfully there were no mosquitoes. I went back up on the other (south) side of the creek, which seemed to be much easier (and safer). Fun fun fun at Lake Tahoe with the family on a hot hot day.