Leon Turnbull Photography

My second hike of the day was in nearby Kentfield. There were a ton of cars parked by the trailhead. I was a bit shocked. It was a rainy day and there were still this many people out hiking? And it started pouring. It was not supposed to rain until the afternoon, but it was raining. And hard. Maybe everyone else was not expecting it to rain until the afternoon as well.

Well a little rain has never stopped me. The hike started out with a very steep uphill. This road was crazy steep. After a few hundred feet of climbing it leveled out at a point where I needed to drop down off the road and down to the creek. It wasn’t too steep of a descent, thankfully, and I made it down to the waterfall in short order.

Bill Williams Creek Falls is 21 ft. high. Whoever Bill Williams is I have no idea. When I got home I looked up the name, however, and found this: “Legend has it that a ‘treasure’ lies buried somewhere on Mount Tamalpais. Bill Williams, after whom Bill Williams Creek is named, is said to have deserted the Confederate Army taking along a chest of stolen Confederate gold.” I did not find any treasure down at the creek except for this pretty waterfall. Nonetheless, I was expecting more water in the creek. There was a lot more in the first waterfall and the creeks are about the same size. It is difficult to take photos in the rain but I managed. Thanks again to Mike for telling me about this one.

I hiked up the mountain and then back down to the car. I decided to skip the third hike that I had planned. I was supposed to meet Nekoda for lunch. I wanted her to come hiking with me but she dances five days a week. She says she needs to rest on the weekend. I suppose that is smart. At least she can have lunch with her old man. It was another beautiful morning in Marin County.

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I returned to Neverland (aka Marin County) to retrieve the waterfall I missed last weekend and more.

It rained one inch on Friday and a half inch earlier in the week so the creeks in the Bay Area should still be full. You would think. It seemed to me about the same as the prior week. I arrived at sunrise and found my one and only parking spot in the same spot as last week.

This was supposed to be a very quick hike but it took longer than I expected. Even so, it was all on trail and very beautiful following the creek the entire way. It is a magical place when it is green and lush and there is water. There was a bit of poison oak but I think I avoided it. After seeing the waterfall I continued up the trail a bit but did not find anything else.

Thanks to friend Mike for telling me about this one a few years ago. South Fork San Anselmo Creek Falls is a lovely 25 ft. high horsetail waterfall and it was flowing quite nicely. I had to sit down in the poison oak to take this photo. Kidding, but there was some right beside me. I was happy to finally see this waterfall. Now I don’t ever have to come back to this location with practically no parking available. After this I went on a second hike in a different spot so stay tuned for that…

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It was time to return to the Bay Area after the recent rain. It is always a crapshoot with the waterfalls there. Will there be enough water or not? It had not really rained all that much but I thought they should be ok. Famous last words.

It has been 20 years since I have been to this spot. I know my memory is not what it used to be but it seems to me the parking used to be better. Residents have blocked off areas in front of their houses so no one can park there anymore. This is a public park. Why isn’t there any decent parking here? It is very annoying. I arrived at sunrise and I found one and only one place to park along the road. Better than nothing, I suppose.

I hiked up to the lower Cascade Falls first and took photos. After this my goal was to go to the Upper Cascade Falls, which I have not been to before, and a third waterfall as well. I hoped to get to all three of these because frankly, with the horrible parking situation, I never want to return here again. Well, I could have done this, except I went the wrong way to Upper Cascade Falls. Ugh. The way I went was a good path but it was a tough climb and then a tough descent back down to the creek. Some poison oak likely touched along the way as well. I found the waterfall.

Upper Cascade Falls (aka the Inkwell, aka the Plunge), is 20 ft. high exactly (with two tiers). I had to jump across the creek for the best view with both tiers in the photo. I did not plunge into the depths of the water although the creek was flowing pretty good. There was a lot of water flowing in all the creeks and I was a bit surprised (and pleased). I’m not positive (as I said, my memory is failing), but I actually think I have been to the upper falls before but just did not realize it was Upper Cascade Falls. It is not exactly a very striking waterfall.

Since the hike to the upper falls took a lot longer than expected (because I went the wrong way), I did not have time to go to the third waterfall. I had to meet my wife and daughter for lunch. Nekoda is going back to college for her next semester so we were dropping her (and all her stuff) off at her dorm room. I will have to come back here for the other waterfall (and deal with the parking again). It was a beautiful morning in Marin County.

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I debated whether to share this photo or not. In the end I decided the picture is not really too horrible and it is worth it for the story.

It was a frustrating weekend. For myself. For Tara. For Nekoda.

My wife Tara is seriously sick. A long story but your prayers would be appreciated for her recovery.

In the meantime Nekoda had her big dance competition this weekend in San Jose. This is a huge deal for her. Tara would normally be the one to take her but obviously she could not do that this year. Enter the dad. Certainly I did not mind doing this and happy to help both of them out. I’m sure Nekoda would have preferred having her mom but I think she was quite satisfied with me being there.

In addition, I would actually have time to hike while she was dancing (or sleeping). Since she did not have to start in the morning until 10:30AM or so, I could go for a quick morning hike both days as long as it was close enough to the hotel.

I had an epic plan for Saturday morning. There was snow! We had very unusual low elevation snow in California this weekend. It really was going to be an epic hike. Except all the roads were closed! But were they? Apple maps was showing closures with no possible way to get to my planned destination on either side. However, Google maps was showing different. Some roads were open. There was a way. I suspected Google would be the one that was correct so off I went on Saturday morning with high hopes. But alas, I came to the closed road well before I could reach my destination. Google was wrong. I returned to the hotel in defeat and waited for Nekoda to wake up so we could go get breakfast together before her dance class.

In the afternoon I had more free time. I did not have to pick Nekoda up until 8:30PM. I decided to drive to the coast. I knew those roads were open. I planned to hike to Purisima Creek Falls and wait until sunset for taking photos. Enter my new frustration: the San Mateo County park system. All the parks in this county do not open until well after sunrise and close at 5PM, well before sunset. There were big and plentiful signs saying the gates closed at 5PM promptly and do not be late or you will get locked in. Ugh. Sunset was at 6PM. I waited at the waterfall viewpoint for as long as I possibly could, hoping for some clouds over the sun. It was not to be. I ran back to the trailhead in order to get back to the car by 5PM and not get locked in. I did not get the good sunset photo that I wanted.

I thought about coming back the next morning in the dark and sneaking in before the gate opened. I probably should have done that but instead I went on a different hike closer to the hotel. That one did not work out either because the creek was almost completely dry. (I won’t be sharing that photo). Strike three.

What about Nekoda? Her big day was on Sunday. She had a solo dance and two group dances. Last year she won an “honorable mention” award for her solo dance and hoped for the same or better this year. She danced absolutely beautifully and perfectly. She did not win an award this year. I am sure you can imagine her disappointment. I was upset. She was ripped off. She totally deserved an honorable mention at the very least, if not better. I’m not just saying that as her dad (but of course it is true I’m biased). Well, she can still be pleased that she danced her best and we are all very proud of her. It was a nice father daughter weekend in the Bay Area.

 

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The rain is gone. The sun is out. It is time to go backpacking. Point Reyes National Seashore was not my first choice. I had big plans to backpack in Ventana Wilderness (at least a couple times this winter) but then they closed the forest for two months. What the heck? There is no more flooding. There is no more rain. Why would you need to close the entire forest now? And for two months? This really really annoyed me. It has also ruined my hiking and backpacking plans this winter. Well, time to turn elsewhere I guess. The Wildcat permit is incredibly difficult to obtain. You need to plan this trip months in advance. Of course I did not do that since I had no plans to go here. However, at the last minute I discovered there was one permit left for the weekend. It must be a miracle. I snatched it up as fast as I could. Point Reyes here I come.

Since the Palomarin road was still closed I had to start my hike from Bear Valley visitor center. This was not a big deal. It is only about one mile longer. I started my hike at about 8:30am and arrived at camp an easy 3 hours later at 11:30am. I set up camp, ate my lunch, and then settled in for the long wait. There was one other couple in the campground (others arrived later). My neighbor couple said they saw a bobcat in the campground just before I got there. I hoped to see it as well. Later at night I did see a strange animal in the dark but I don’t know if was the bobcat or not. Some sort of “wildcat” perhaps, though it seemed more like a weasel size (but who knows – it was dark).

Horsetail Falls … so … hummm … I have had this on my radar for a long time. I have only seen it from the bluffs at a very long distance (six years ago). You cannot get up close to the waterfall except at a minus tide. There was a minus tide on this day at about sunset. The timing would be perfect. I just had to wait 5 hours until the end of day.

I started hiking up the beach at about 3:30pm. I had loads of time to spare. I saw one other couple had gone up this way in the afternoon. When they passed me going the other way I saw they had their big backpacks on. Why would they carry their heavy packs up here? The only possible reason is if they were trying to find an (illegal) camping spot. Apparently they did not find one because they were going back. It certainly would not have been very smart to camp up here. At high tide the waves are literally crashing against the cliffs, but with a minus tide I easily made it up to Horsetail Falls. If you think Wildcat Beach at Pt Reyes is the most beautiful beach on Earth, I would not argue with you. However, the beach at Horsetail Falls I just might rank a tad higher. Perhaps because it is more remote and a lot harder to reach but it is absolutely out of this world breathtaking. I still had an hour to spare so I continued on past all the shore birds to the end of the beach where there is a spectacular arch at Millers Point. That was as far as I could continue at a minus tide. I retreated back to the waterfall.

Even though it had only been only five days since the last of the storms, the flow in Horsetail Falls and Phantom Falls was much reduced, probably half the flow or less since I was at Pt Reyes five days previously. It was a bit disappointing (especially Phantom Falls). You would think these streams could hold their flow for a lot longer after so much rain. I’m ready for more rain now, please.

Sunset was at 5:20pm and I had to wait until 5:20pm before I could take any photos. There was still a bit of light on the waterfall but it was gorgeous.

Now I had to literally run back to Phantom Falls in order to take photos of that waterfall. It was a half mile and I ran on the beach as fast as I could. I barely had enough light left to take photos of Phantom Falls. Now I could relax again and walked back to my campsite in the dark. Along the way I saw some deer walking slowly along the beach, so slowly that I caught up with them. At first I was not sure if they saw me or not because it was dark, but then I realized they did notice me, they just did not care that I was there. They scrambled up the cliffs (I went the easy way) and I saw them again back at my campsite. Again, they did not care that I was standing right beside them in my campsite. They just went about their business, scrounging for food. I saw them sleeping in the bushes later. I did not see them in the morning. I did see little birds, however. They were worse than the deer. They were all around and came up within a foot of me and they did not care at all that I was there. Obviously they were very used to seeing people!

It was a very cold night in the tent even though it should not have been (it was above 40 degrees). I think the wind made it feel a lot colder than normal. I woke up, made my breakfast, and watched the waves crashing against the cliffs (it was not even high tide yet) while I drank my coffee to warm me up. I would have gone to Alamere Falls but the high tide did not allow me. I arrived back at my car at 11:30am. It was a glorious weekend at Point Reyes National Seashore.

 

 

 

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