Leon Turnbull Photography

Waterfall hunting in Nevada. I have never been to this waterfall before because Reno “seems like” such a long way away. Actually it is only a 2 hour drive and all on the freeway. I thought about finally going here this weekend when I realized it would have Fall Colors and it would be flowing decent as well. It would have been much better to go early in the morning but I did not sleep well on Halloween night so we decided to go in the afternoon instead. “We” being myself and Journey of course.

This is a very busy trail. Much busier than the Galena Creek hike we did in Lake Tahoe. More people. More dogs. When I am sick and tired of seeing people before we even get to the waterfall then you know it is way too crowded. I am so glad that I can have Journey off leash when there is a lot of people. She is so perfect and follows right behind me or goes ahead of me past the people coming on the trail. When there are other dogs I do grab her collar or put her on leash and I had to do that a lot on this hike but I don’t need to do anything like that if there are no dogs. It makes me very happy.

It is a simple 3 mile hike (one way) to the waterfall with 1000 ft. elevation gain. It was a warm afternoon. There is a lot of Fall Color the entire way to the waterfall but no color right at the falls. There is some at the waterfall but it was long past done, unfortunately. The last section is extremely tricky. You need to cross the creek on logs which are quite high above the creek. We were following a lady and her little pipsqueak dog for this last part and her dog got right up on this narrow log with a big drop off and crossed the creek easily on it. Dang! It was incredible. No way Journey would be able to do that. The other option was a hodge podge of logs over the creek also with a big dropoff. They looked unstable and there were holes. You would not want to miss the log and put your foot through one of the holes, especially if you have little doggy legs. It seemed very sketchy. I looked around for another way but there was none. The creek was deep everywhere and would have been higher than Journey’s chest. There is no way she would have wanted to do that and indeed she would have balked and refused. Back to the hodge podge of logs. We need to try going this way. I got her up on the logs and she crossed carefully but easily. Awesome! I was very happy and proud that she did it. She is so good at stuff like this. My previous dog Kaya, no way Jose! She would have waded through the creek up to her chest.

I figured since it was late in the day there would not be any more people at the waterfall (except for the lady and her pipsqueak). Not so! There were still people here, including some kids smoking weed at the falls. I had to wait for them to leave before I could take photos. Then another big group came with a couple of dogs so I had to wait for them to leave as well. We sat on a log and ate our dinner while we waited. Finally everyone left. It was slightly tricky to get up to the base of the waterfall and we had to get our feet wet, but not nearly as difficult as the logs. We took our photos and enjoyed the waterfall before going back down.

Hunter Creek Falls is 27 ft. high. It is a lovely waterfall and was flowing quite decent. Obviously it has a defining log in the middle, another one of those that adds a lot of character to the waterfall. My wife thought it was very similar to Lion Slide Falls and she is right, except obviously this one is a lot thinner.

We hiked back down the mountain. We saw quite a few more people coming up the trail. All of them would be hiking back in the dark. I think that is what I should have done as well. Do the hike later in the day and hike back in the dark. There would have been a lot fewer people. I will not do this hike again because of the all people on this trail. You can be sure that our next hike (whatever it is) will not have anyone on the trail. It was a lovely Autumn afternoon in Mt. Rose Wilderness.

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I do not usually cross into Nevada to search for waterfalls, but when I do, I find one. Kidding. But seriously, if there are two waterfalls that I want to see that are the same distance from my home, one in CA and one in NV, I will choose to go to the CA waterfall. Why so, captain? Well it is because I want to be considered the guru of California waterfalls (or whatever you want to call me – pick a name – it doesn’t have to be a nice one), and there are just so many waterfalls still left to see in California, so I concentrate on going to see the CA waterfalls as much as I can, in order to continue to build up my bagged list in CA. But every so often, I feel like venturing into Nevada, and thus was the case this weekend.

Waterfall season is done in California (and Nevada), but I thought perhaps this one in the Mt Rose Wilderness might still be suitable, since it is a high elevation waterfall. Not great, but at least decent. So after work on Friday, I took my son Jadon and drove up the hill, eventually crossing into that other state.

I thought this was a very easy hike. It is only 2.5 miles with minimal elevation gain. Jadon did not feel the same way. He said it was a “moderate” hike. My family knows by now to always up the difficulty level from what I say it is, by one more level. They are not stupid. Easy is really moderate. Moderate is really strenuous. Strenuous is really just kill me now. I’m not sure, though, why Jadon thought this hike was “moderate”. Perhaps it was the high elevation. Pretty much the entire hike is above 9000 ft., so that could be a factor, but since it is mostly flat-ish, I did not think it to be an issue at all. Perhaps it was just his lazy, teenage mindset. That’s more likely. Anyhow, it was a good hike to the falls. It was definitely flowing “decent”, though I was hoping for a bit more water.

My tripod head broke again, making it very difficult to take photos. I had said I fixed it, and that I was the man, and avoiding having to purchase a new $200 head. Well, I guess I am not the man any longer. I could not fix it again. The screws were still tight, and I could not tighten them any more, but it is still broken. So I am definitely going to need to buy a new one now. Bummer. I tried to take photos as best as I could.

On the way down, we ran into not one but two large groups going up the mountain (to the top of Mt Rose). It was already almost sunset. It would be dark long before they got to the top. Usually I am always the last one off the mountain, but not today. At first I thought it was just a bunch of unprepared kids going up to have a party or something and not thinking about how they would come back down in the dark, but then a couple adults came trailing along behind them. They said they were going to the top to see the full moon rise, and hike down in the dark. Ok then, well that sounds like a very cool thing to do, however I’m pretty sure they did not make it to the top in time to see the moonrise. I would definitely like to go to the top sometime to be there at sunrise or sunset. That would be awesome, but not today. I was hoping to get a nice sunset view of Lake Tahoe from up on the ridge, but we could not even see the lake! It was so hazy in the valley from the fires in California, that you could not see anything down in the valley. There was a bit of nice color, and I did take a couple shots, but I don’t think I got anything very interesting. We arrived back at the car just after dark and made the long drive home. We had a good hike in the other state. 

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We have had some awesome beautiful rainy weather this May after a very dry winter. It has kept the creeks flowing, though it certainly is not helping the drought situation since we need so much more rain, and unfortunately it is now coming to an end and summer is going to kick in with a vengeance this week (it looks like, anyway).

I had not been up to the sacred lake yet this year (Tahoe, of course), but it was our anniversary on Friday and at the last minute I thought Tara and I should have a nice romantic getaway for a night at our favorite lake. Even though it was the long weekend, I was able to book a night at a nice hotel at the last minute (pat myself on back). The rain prevented any nice sunset or sunrise pictures from happening while we were up there, but we had a lovely day nonetheless.

On the way back I was wanting to do a waterfall hike with Tara to somewhere, but where. I hummed and hawed about where to go. The rain was coming in for one last drenching. I finally decided that we should go home the long way around, up around the lake to the north. A stop at Incline Village and a short hike leads to this small waterfall on Third Creek (though it is not on Third Creek, it is on a small tributary of Third Creek). The drainage is small on this creek, but it had some decent flow due to the rain.

I measured this falls to be 24 ft. high. It does not look that high, in fact it looks more like 15 ft. high or so, but the measuring sticks do not lie (usually) and it will qualify for my website. I continued following the trail up the mountain, I was sure there were more waterfalls on this creek, and I went quite a ways up but I found none. I could see a bigger one, possibly, far up the mountain, but that would have been impossible to reach. Anyway, this one is a nice little waterfall on the way home, and we had a nice time (in the rain).

 

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