Leon Turnbull Photography

After watching that couple almost say goodbye to life at Lower Eagle Falls, I went up the trail to Upper Eagle Falls. It was getting late, past sunset, but I just had time to take a quick shot. I kinda wanted to spend more time here, see if I could get down closer to creek level, but it was getting late, the mosquitoes were coming out, and I needed to get back to the motel to see the family. Or else they might think it was me that went over the waterfall. Well, I did have quite a pleasant evening anyway.

I did not sleep well in the motel. Too hot and too uncomfortable. I crawled out of bed at 4AM and drove up to the Glen Alpine trailhead. It was dark when I started out. And warm. By golly it was already too warm for hiking.

Before I got too far up the trail and before it got light, the mosquitoes came out to play. I got out my bug spray quickly. That seemed to help … for the moment. However, by the time I got to Far Glen Alpine Falls, the mosquitoes were everywhere. Millions of them, swarming around me. Completely ignoring my bug spray. I could not breathe. If I fell down, they would be on me immediately, and I would be a goner. Have to keep moving. So this presents a dilemma. How am I going to stop and photograph this waterfall? I did the best I could, getting into the creek in front of the falls, but I could not handle it for long. I was suffocating from the swarm. I could only take a quick shot, then I had to get the heck out of there. The mosquitoes were not bad at all at Eagle Falls, the previous night. Why so awful here at Glen Alpine? I am not happy with my shot of Far Glen Alpine Falls, but I could not stick around to find a better composition. I had to move. Or die. I am going to have to come back next year. In MAY. Not JUNE.

And why did the buggers ignore my mosquito repellent? Epic fail. I am trying out some new deet free repellent. It has worked well up until now. But this was I suppose the first major test for it, and it bombed big time. But I wonder if any repellent could have worked today. The mosquitoes were very determined. To kill.

On the way back down the hill I was hoping to stop at Upper Glen Alpine Falls. I was not sure if I would be able to get there before the sun hit the falls. I calculated it would be in the sun at 6:15am and it would be 6:30am when I would arrive. Would I make it? I was also feeling very stressed and exasperated. My pleasant morning hike so far was completely awful because of the mosquitoes. This is not why I signed up for hiking. Hiking is supposed to be enjoyable. So I prayed: Please Lord, let there be no mosquitoes at the waterfall, and please let it still be in shade. I arrived at the waterfall. There was a bit of sun at top, but it was still mostly in the shade, and I still had time to photograph. I turned off the road and through the trees towards the waterfall. The mosquitoes were still hounding me at this point. Then I broke through the trees onto the big rock face that goes down to the creek. The mosquitoes were gone. Huh? I checked around again. No mosquitoes. Where did they go? There is no logical explanation for this. There was no breeze and no spray from the falls here. There is no reason how they could be all around me everywhere, but not here at this one spot in front of the waterfall. It was a miracle. The Lord answered my prayer. I took my photographs of the waterfall, then I just sat down on the rock face for about 20 minutes, loving the respite from the mosquitoes, relaxing, and enjoying the waterfall, and thanking the Lord. When I got back up and headed back down the trail to the car, the mosquitoes found me again, but I did not care.

Saturday … forecast 107 degrees for Sacramento Valley. No thank you. Time to go escape the heat and head up into the mountains to Lake Tahoe. Forecast for Tahoe was not much better at 90 degrees but I’ll take it. We arrived at the motel, I dropped the wife and kids off. Apparently, they would rather swim in the pool at the motel then go to see a waterfall. The horror. I think I am failing as a father. Well, where should I go? There were no clouds in the sky, but I decided to go to Eagle Falls anyway.

I wanted to go down to the bottom of the falls, on the south side, ie. not on the regular trail to the bottom, but straight down the steep hillside from the highway, looking for some new comps of the waterfall from down there. It was easy enough getting down, there is a well trodden path. I could not find any place to photograph the waterfall, however. The waterfall is still flowing very well. All the waterfalls around Tahoe are still going pretty good, and there is still snow melting in the mountains. There was too much mist and spray from the falls to get up close to it from below. I was bummed. I really wanted to get something from down there, and I spent a lot of time trying, but it just was not happening. Finally I went back up to the top of the falls and I found this nice composition overlooking Emerald Bay. It is obviously not a new composition, others have shot it before, but I had not. It was quite nice, a very pleasant evening, and the mosquitoes were not bad at all. This is surprising as usually they are quite bad here and it was so warm out you would think they would be biting. I was happy about that (but stick around for my next post to find out where they were really hiding).

As I was standing here photographing the waterfall, a lot of teens arrived and were walking around on the other side of the creek at the top of the falls. It seems they were from a church group, or at least some were. Then I cringed. A couple of them starting walking out in the creek, climbing over the rocks, right at the very edge of the waterfall. I am not exaggerating when I say they were in an EXTREMELY DANGEROUS position. I watched them for a bit, expecting one of them to fall off the cliff at any moment. I was within a few seconds of going to say something, but then they moved to a safer location, so I decided to let it be. But perhaps I should have said something anyway? I am not entirely sure if they were with the church group because they seemed a bit older than some of the other kids, but it seems very ironic that the church kids seem to be winning all the Darwin Awards lately. The teen who went over Nevada Falls last week was with a church group, as were the two that went over Vernal Falls last year. I wonder … Well, I suppose it is really all teenagers that are like this (well, not all, but certainly many). They think they are invincible, macho, they can do anything etc. If I had said anything to these two, I am sure they would have said they were not being unsafe, they were in control of the situation. They would have said that what an old and feeble geezer like myself thinks is unsafe, is not unsafe to them, young and strong and virile. Many people have died at Eagle Falls as well. Those rocks in the water are very slippery, I am not kidding. And I am positive that the kid who went over Nevada Falls was thinking the very same thing. He was strong, he was not being unsafe, the current in the river was calm enough to swim in, and he could easily handle it. Yeah, right. Next! I am not being unsympathetic to these people who have died, but come on people, you need to be smart. Waterfalls are very dangerous. Ok I think I have said enough about that. Stay tuned for my next post, where I tell you how I almost died, and it was not from a waterfall.

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.

The Robbers Fire is currently burning out of control in one of my favorite stomping grounds near Colfax and Foresthill, only about 20 percent contained as I write this. I’m not sure exactly what has burned, but I believe up to six waterfalls may be burning right now: Devils Falls, Shirtail Creek Falls, Mexican Gulch Falls, Indian Creek Falls, Upper/Lower Chamberlain Creek Falls, not to mention the fabulous wildflowers on Windy Point. Once this fire is out, it will be interesting to see what has burned or not. I maintain that forest fires are a healthy and natural thing (though I have heard that this fire may not have started naturally, which is very bad), and among other things they clear out all the brush and undergrowth, which is desperately needed; but of course we certainly pray that no one will lose their homes because of this fire, and they say this could happen if the fire jumps the river, and I also sure don’t want to see that beautiful wildflower area burned up, which would also be sad.

Anyway, back to Horsetail Falls. After shooting the main section of Horsetail Falls I retreated back down the mountain semi quickly because I wanted to get back to Lower Horsetail Falls, which I have only been to once before.

I like that whenever I am here I am always the last one off the mountain. Considering how very busy this trail is during the day it is not so easy to accomplish. It is like a special bond or something I have with this mountain, always being the last one down. Well I did end up being the last one down again but I had to battle it out with some other people this time. I passed up a couple older people coming down from the top of Horsetail firstly (then they passed me when I took a detour to the lower falls). When I arrived at the lower falls there was (very surprisingly) another photographer there shooting the falls. I do not normally see other photographers unless I am in a popular location such as Yosemite. He was in my way so I had to wait for him and he was taking a sweet old time but I waited patiently, and while I waited I thought hard about how I could possibly get down to the lower section of this waterfall. The upper part (shown here) is 35 ft high but there is a lower part as well, which is just as big or bigger. The only way to get to it would be to cross the creek but this is impossible to do when the creek flows strong (which is most of the year). Perhaps in late summer? I’m not sure but I’ll figure out a way. Well all that thought strained my brain but the other photographer finally moved out of the way so I made my way down to creek level and started taking some photos of this cool looking slide. It was a great evening in the Desolation Wilderness.