Leon Turnbull Photography

I stepped out of my vehicle and was promptly annihilated by a thousand mosquitoes. Quickly, I dropped my bag, got out my bug juice, and doused myself with the stuff. Phew, that was a close one.

On the hike up to the waterfall, the little buggers were all over the place, but at least they were not biting me. There are three waterfalls on this river all within easy reach. The biggest one is the middle one, a 64 ft. high tiered waterfall, though it is a tough one to photograph, especially with the spray from the water going every which way. It was getting late, I did not think I would have time to go to all the waterfalls, but I wanted to be sure to get to the two upper ones. Once I got to the upper falls, the mosquitoes swarmed me again and I had to douse myself again to keep them away. Geez.

More info on Upper Truckee River Falls:
http://waterfallswest.com/waterfall.php?id=562

I’ve been wondering for a few years now about the Silver Fork American River. Specifically, wondering if there are any waterfalls on it. I had not heard of any. But surely, I thought, there *must* be a waterfall on this river. Not a big one, I knew, but there must be a small one, a decent one, somewhere on this river.

I studied the topo maps. Studied them some more. I came up with a possible location. It even looked like there was a trail leading right to it. Sweet.

Well fast forward to a Friday evening in late July. I was in a certain mood. An exploring mood. But not for any difficult exploring. I wanted to get out of the house, get up in the mountains, away from the heat of the city. But I didn’t want a difficult hike, just an easy one, but not too easy. Well, where could I possibly go for that? Then a light bulb clicked. How about the Silver Fork? Seemed like a great idea. That river would be still flowing decent. It is not too far from my house, and the hike should not be too difficult. Perfect. And off I went.

I drove up the Silver Fork Road at Kyburz. I found that it was paved the whole way. That was sure nice. I didn’t want to have to wash my vehicle again so soon. I arrived at the trailhead, and I was surprised to find there was a campsite here. I didn’t know there was one here, and I didn’t know where the trailhead was, so I wandered through the campsite in search of the trail. Eventually I found it, and it would have been easier to find if I went the correct way, but oh well.

Once on the trail, things were easy. The trail leads up to where Caples Creek flows into the Silver Fork, then crosses Caples Creek on a bridge, and leads back to the Silver Fork. Both Caples Creek and the Silver Fork had pretty good flow. I arrived at the spot where I thought there would be a waterfall, and yay, lo and behold, there was one.

But I was quite early, the sun was still shining down into the canyon, and I felt like doing more hiking. So I continued on up the trail for another couple miles. The trail was mostly flat the entire distance, so it was a good hike and not too difficult. Just what the doctor ordered. I realized that I could have hiked all the way to Silver Lake. It would not have been all that far to the lake, but it was a bit far for me on this day, so I turned around well before getting to the lake. On the way back, I heard a totally obscene and outrageous noise coming up the trail interrupting my beautiful, pleasant hike. It was someone on a motorcycle coming towards me. I got out of the way, but this really irritated me because motor vehicles are not allowed on this trail. There are plenty of places where people can ride their motorcycles and not chew up nice hiking trails. Argh.

Anyway, I arrived back at the waterfall. As you can see from this photo, it does not look like much of a waterfall. I measured it to be 23 feet high. The problem with this waterfall is that it needs a lot of water flowing in the river to make it look good.  There are so many boulders in the river, when the flow is lower in the summer, it just doesn’t look so good. But in the spring, when the flow is high, I think this waterfall would be rockin. I definitely plan to be back here next spring. Though I won’t be able to stand in the middle of the river to take photos in the spring, so that might make things more interesting.

Finally. This one has been my nemesis for a couple years now. And after a couple tries, I was finally able to get to it. This is Eagle Lake Falls at Lake Tahoe. It is 174 ft. high, and it is extreme spectacular-ness.

Now … I suspect that most people have never heard of this waterfall before at Lake Tahoe. Eagle Lake Falls? What the heck? Everyone (and I mean everyone) knows about Eagle Falls at Emerald Bay. It is one of the most photographed waterfalls in California. Most people would also know about Upper Eagle Falls as well. But there is another waterfall on the same stream, and this one is actually bigger than Lower Eagle Falls (which is 140 ft. high).  I want to even say that this waterfall is better than Lower Eagle Falls, but I will refrain from saying that for now.

I would say that the vast majority of visitors to Eagle Falls, only visit the Lower Eagle Falls, and perhaps the Upper Eagle Falls. Only a fraction venture above the bridge at Upper Eagle Falls, and visit Eagle Lake. And only a fraction of that fraction venture further than Eagle Lake. But there is a whole world of exploring to be done in the Desolation Wilderness. The Desolation Wilderness is actually a fairly popular backpacking area, so a fraction of a fraction is still quite a lot of people. Nonetheless, it is a beautiful place that not too many people will see. And if you hike above Eagle Lake, and if you are looking for it, you can see this waterfall above Eagle Lake from the trail. But it is a long way off, and an extremely steep descent, and there are no trails venturing down to it. That is where I come in. Waterfall Hunter.

I saw this waterfall first a couple years ago when I was hiking up in the Desolation Wilderness. From a distance it did not look like a huge waterfall. In fact, after studying Google Earth and my topo maps, I kinda figured it was maybe 50 ft. or so high. Nonetheless, I still wanted to add it to my collection of course. I tried accessing it first from Eagle Lake, by hiking over the rocks and talus slides along Eagle Lake to the end, then going upstream from there. I made it to the end of Eagle Lake, but then ran into a dead end, with steep cliffs and very thick brush. There is a lot of thick brush at the end of Eagle Lake. I did not make it to the falls.

Hmmm … how could I possibly make it to this remote and seemingly inaccessible waterfall? I studied my maps and GE some more, and came up with a new route. My new route was to access it from above, venturing off the main trail above Eagle Lake, and coming down to the falls from above. GE showed a lot of probable brush in the area, but it looked like the cliff beside the falls was not too steep from GE, and I could access it from there. Yeah, right.

So off I went up to Lake Tahoe on a Tuesday afternoon in late July. When I arrived at Eagle Falls, there was a lot of people around. I was lucky to get a parking spot at the trailhead. I could see that Eagle Falls was still running quite well. And I could also see there was still snow on some of the mountains. Shocker. Usually, by this time of year, Eagle Falls is reduced to a trickle. Thank you, 140 percent of normal snow pack. This was definitely a good sign.

It was quite a warm day (80 degrees) for a hike up into the Desolation Wilderness, but up up up I went. When I got up above Eagle Lake, I left the crowds behind me, and I came into view of the waterfall for the first time. I could see that the cliff beside the waterfall was definitely far too steep to make a descent. It seemed so much tamer on GE. There was no way I would be descending down that. Nonetheless, I continued on, hoping to find another route down once I got there. I came to another dilemma once I reached the spot where I was to break off trail and head down to the falls. It was steep! It did not look too promising, and I was considering giving up my quest for the day. But … I had come all this way up here, so I decided to try it. As I descended, I actually found a path. People had obviously been down here before. It was a good path in spots, and in others, it was hard to follow. But I was following it. It was not my original planned route, but it was leading me down to the falls. As I descended, I could see the waterfall, and I could easily see that it was definitely a lot bigger than I had anticipated. It was certainly no 50 footer. This was very cool. I was feeling very good.

Then … as I crossed a brushy ravine and headed up onto a ridge, I could see the waterfall in plain view ahead of me. It looked like I was going to make it. Then all of a sudden … I came to a dead end. A big cliff dropoff right in front of me. Crikey! I had almost made it all the way to the falls, and now I was stopped. Well, I could still take my pictures from this spot. The view of the falls was excellent from here. But I was definitely bummed that I did not make it all the way to the waterfall. After taking my pictures, I did find a possible descent down the cliff. But I could not tell if I would be able to continue all the way or not. Maybe it was possible. But it was now getting very late. I had run out of time. If I went down now, I would be hiking back in the dark. So I decided to not try it this time, and come back another day.

I started heading back up to the main trail. It was a very steep and slow ascent. The high elevation was definitely getting to me, and I was even feeling a bit dizzy as I ascended. Finally, I got back to the main trail. Now it was all downhill back to the car. I was quite bagged though from this very strenuous hike, and I drank all the water in my camelbak before I made it back down, and I arrived just after sunset. Some light clouds had rolled in surprisingly over the Bay, and I was actually hoping for a nice sunset at Eagle Falls. But I arrived there a bit too late (but the clouds did not really color up too nicely anyway, so I didn’t miss very much). I was totally bagged from the hike. I stopped at McDonald’s to refuel myself with a couple chicken sandwiches and ice cream before making the long drive home.