Leon Turnbull Photography

This last Saturday I went to check out Emerald Pools on the South Fork Yuba River. Finally. It has been on my list for a long time, but rather low on the list, and I just had not found the time to get out there. But here in December, I learned that the river was flowing right now, as they are letting water out of Spaulding Lake for some reason or other. How did I know this? By checking dreamflows.com, an excellent resource, used mostly by kayakers, but quite useful for waterfallers as well.

I had planned to go in the morning, but with getting zero sleep the night before, I decided in the middle of the night to skip that plan, and go in the afternoon instead. I arrived about 2pm, and with sunset being so early, that did not leave a lot of time for exploring. Fortunately, I found the river already in shade. Perfect for photography purposes. There is a bit of a trail following the river downstream, and so I followed it, weaving this way and that way, over and around rocks and cliffy sections, until I made my way down to the location of the Emerald Pools. It would have been much quicker to cut straight across instead of following the river path, and that is how I went back. Easy smeasy.

At the Emerald Pools, I came to somewhat of a deadend. There was no way down to the bottom. I was a bit surprised, as it is a popular place for swimming in the summer. How do people get down there? The only way I figured possible would be to go quite a ways downstream, past the cliffy section, work your way down to the river and then back upstream to the pools. It would also be necessary to cross the river in order to see the falls (or swim up to them), and that might be easy in the summer, but it was flowing a bit too swiftly for me to cross today.

Instead of doing that, I tried to make my way down the cliff to get in a position to see the waterfall. It was very tricky. The slope was on the steep side, and very crumbly. I thought I might just slip and slide all the way down the cliff and into the river. There was also one big step down that I needed to make, it was definitely on the edge of my comfort zone, but I carefully carefully made it down to a viewpoint where I could see the upper falls. There are two waterfalls here, and the total height is about 25 ft. The first one is 15 ft. high (measured), though it may not look like it from this angle. The second one immediately below this is about 10 ft high, but I could in no way, shape, or manner, get to any place to view it (and I did try). But as I said, you’d have to go way downstream, cross the river, and back up on the other side, where I think you could view the falls from there, but you’d only be able to do this in the summer when the river flow is much lower. It was getting late though, and I had to get back to my car. By the way, if you see any yellow sunglasses down here, they are yours truly.

This is Upper Glen Alpine Falls, 32 ft. high. In the spring, it is a little spitfire, roaring down the canyon. But in the Fall, it is actually still quite a pretty little waterfall. Since it is pretty much a straight drop, it does not need a lot of water to look good, so even with very little flow in the creek, it is still lovely to visit. Compare that to Lower Glen Alpine Falls, which was not even worth seeing (on the same creek with the same amount of water flow). It is also quite easy in the Fall to get right down in front of the waterfall in the middle of the creek; I would not be able to shoot from here in the Spring, that is a certainty.

I have shot sunrise at Eagle Falls before. The well known location from the top of the waterfall overlooking beautiful Emerald Bay, made famous by the late Galen Rowell. Many others have photographed from this spot since Rowell, and many have taken fabulous photos from this location, but for me, I have not ever taken a photo that I really really liked. I am a lot closer to it now.

I drove up to Lake Tahoe early early Saturday morning. When I started out, I was not sure where I was going to end up. The forecast said overcast in the morning, and it sure looked that way as I drove up Hwy 50. When I got to the summit, I stopped. Got out of my car. Looked at the sky. I saw lots of clouds. I saw stars. It seemed that there was a possibility at least of a decent sunrise at Tahoe, so I made my decision. Eagle Falls. It was a good decision.

There was no one else at Eagle Falls as I drove up. I saw one other photographer shooting Emerald Bay, but he was on the wrong side of the bay for a sunrise shoot. I can’t imagine he got any decent shot from where he was. There was definitely a break in the overcastness on the other side of the lake. It looked like a sweet sunrise was definitely on the agenda. Thank you Lord.

When the water level is lower at this time of year, your composition choice here is extremely limited. If you want to include any part of the water or falls, this is essentially the only option. But it does work, and it works quite well. Nonetheless, I kind of want to come back in the spring and try again. For an even sweeter sunrise, and an even sweeter waterfall. Sounds like a plan.

Now that is what I am talking about.

Well it was not Plan A. And it was not Plan B. But Plan C worked out pretty fine. I wanted to head on over to the Eastern Sierra on Saturday. The big waterfall at June Lake is flowing right now, and I had hoped to get up to the base of it. However, due to the most recent snow storm, the road over Monitor Pass is now closed. With luck, it will re-open this week and I can try again next weekend, but there is a good chance it will now be closed for the rest of the winter. Plan B was to head over to the Yosemite area, where I know of certain waterfalls that also are flowing well right now. But the weather forecast was calling for a sunny day on Saturday, and I did not want to drive all the way out there, and not be able to get good photos of them. I really need a cloudy day for that trip. As it turned out, it was a cloudy day on Saturday! What the hey? I could have done Plan B after all. Darn weather forecasters.

Plan C was to do an easy hike back up to Alder Creek Falls near Kyburz, hoping to get down to the bottom of it. It was a very cold morning, and there was some snow on the ground, though not too much. I got to the top of the waterfall easily enough. But it is very steep on the one side of the creek, and not possible to get down to the base of the falls. I was able to cross the creek, however, at the top of the waterfall, and work my way down on the other side. If the creek was flowing any higher, I would not have been able to do this. It was a bit sketchy in a couple places as it was. Nonetheless, I made it down, and I was happy to do so. This would be a fantastic place to be in the spring, but crossing the creek at the top of the falls will not be a possibility in any way, shape, or form. Hmmm, what to do, what to do.

The sun came up quickly in Hope Valley as I was photographing the waterfall on the West Fork Carson River. I knew it would be and that I would not have much time to shoot.

I made my way downstream looking to get at least one more shot of the river and the fall color around it. I found this spot which looked promising and (again) I hopped out on boulders into the middle of the river. You sure couldn’t do that in the spring (but then, there is no fall color in the spring either – LOL).

This image is a blend of two shots. I wanted a super long exposure on the water to give it a real smooth look. But in that exposure the trees were blowing around too much and I did not like how it looked. Fortunately I had an exact image but with a shorter exposure, in which the leaves were not blowing as much. I combined the two in Photoshop … and voila!