Leon Turnbull Photography

This is from my hike last weekend. The fifth of five waterfalls I saw that fall onto the beach on the California coast. This is Palomarin Falls, 151 ft. high. Last time I was here, Palomarin Falls was just a trickle. It was so nice to see this one flowing decently well. It is a beauty. Just be sure to come here immediately after it rains.

My initial plan was to hike to RCA Beach Falls then back to the car, and then drive to the Palomarin trailhead to do my second hike in the afternoon. However, the road to Palomarin was closed, apparently due to flooding. I saw no flooding on the road. So why the heck was it closed? There were a ton of people this day wanting to hike to Alamere Falls and they either turned back or had to walk an extra 5 miles. For no good reason whatsoever. Indeed I found out later according to the park website that I (and all the other people) were not even allowed to walk on the road. What is wrong with the park service, not letting people hike to Alamere Falls?

I had a second option. After hiking to RCA Beach Falls I would continue up the beach to Arroyo Hondo Falls (which I have been to before). I would then cross this creek and continue on my second hike to the other waterfalls and then I would hike back on the main road to my car. Now this would be interesting. Arroyo Hondo is a large creek. With all the rain we had it was very questionable that I could cross it at all. Well it was definitely flowing very strong but as it turned out it was not difficult to cross it. But did I even want to go on the second hike? It was too sunny. What would be the point of going to the other waterfalls? I sat down at Arroyo Hondo Falls and ate my lunch and thought about it for quite a long time. As I pondered the dilemma, I saw that clouds (and perhaps a storm) were coming in from over the ocean. It might actually cloud over in the afternoon. I decided to continue on. Of course the storm and clouds never materialized and it remained sunny all afternoon. Sigh.

I have not been to Bass Falls before. It requires a very low tide to access and perhaps a minus tide. It was not a minus tide today but it was low enough that I thought I would be able to make it if I timed it correctly. It was a beautiful and fun hike along the beach and I had no trouble making it to the waterfall. Now I just had to wait again for clouds to pass in front of the sun. Bass Falls is quite interesting. It looks very different now from pictures I have seen. There was a huge rock slide right in front of the waterfall. In addition to this the flow seems to be altered somehow up on top. It is not as photogenic as it used to be. Sometimes waterfalls are strange.

I retreated back along the beach. I could have gone the same way (via RCA Beach) but I decided that I had enough of beach walking for today. The rocky sections of the beach are very hard to walk on and my feet were quite sore. It might be a bit longer but I figured it would be a lot easier to hike on the road. Getting down to the Palomarin beach used to be very easy. This trail has also been washed out now. There is a very sketchy rope ladder to climb up the cliff and get onto the trail. It was very debatable if the rope was going to hold my weight. A fall here would have really hurt or involved breakage of bones. I made it up and once on the trail the going was very easy the rest of the way. I found out that the trail is actually closed because of the washout (but there were no signs down on the beach so how could I have known?). Once on the road I saw a lot of people walking, supposedly going to Alamere Falls (where else would they be going?). This made no sense to me. It was now 3pm and they had 6 miles to hike to Alamere Falls. There is no way they would even get to the waterfall before dark (never mind the hike back). Some of them seemed ill prepared, not even carrying any water (and most likely not carrying head lamps either). Why would you go on such a big hike so late in the day? People are strange, I think. It was a most fabulous day in Point Reyes National Seashore.

When I was here a couple weeks ago I stupidly missed seeing this waterfall (read prior post Who’ll Stop The Rain?) so I wanted to return here and finally get to it. The weather forecast was for it to be cloudy with showers all day. It was sunny. You have got to be kidding me. They could not get it more wrong if they intentionally tried to get it wrong! Clouds or sun? How difficult is that, really? Ugh!

I started out on the same trail as before. I arrived at the creek crossing above the first waterfall. The flow was way down. I was not expecting this. I was expecting it to be about the same. It has pretty much rained non stop (until this day). There was a wooden board to easily step across the creek. I did not even see the board last time because the creek was in flood. I got down to the last section before getting onto the beach. Two weeks ago it was very easy to get down to the beach. Now the trail was washed out. There was a cliff! There was no longer any way down to the beach! Well, it was not too horrible. I was able to slide down the cliff on my butt (it was a small cliff) and get onto the beach. I hoped I would not have any trouble climbing back up later. It was an interesting adventure already and I had not even gotten to the waterfall yet.

The tide was on its way out. I thought I might have to sit and wait an hour or two before I would be able to walk up the beach, however it was not a problem. I made it easily to the first waterfall of the day: RCA Beach Falls. What does RCA stand for? I have no clue. RCA Beach is a clothing optional beach, however I saw no people at all, clothed or otherwise. I did not even see any naked sea lions. Well, it was quite a bit chilly. The waterfall was in full sun. I waited. This would be my theme for the day: hike to waterfall, wait 30 to 60 minutes for clouds to pass in front of sun, take photographs, hike to next waterfall. It was a good thing I was not in a hurry. Low tide would not be until 2:30pm. There was no rush. I had all day.

Finally I got some clouds and took a photo. I certainly had to be on my toes because I only had about a minute or two before the sun was out again. RCA Beach Falls is a marvelous 50 ft. cascade dropping into the ocean. I find it hilarious when people say there are only two waterfalls in California that drop into the ocean. There are many of them! This is one. I would be seeing four more today.

Part 2 is coming …

(hopefully no one!)

The rivers did not get as high as I predicted this weekend. We received the 11.5 inches of rain in the Sierra foothills as forecast, however the North Fork American peaked at 29,000 cfs on Saturday morning midnight. I predicted it would get above 50,000. What happened? Well, the snow levels dropped much quicker on Saturday morning than forecast and so there was less rain falling in the mountains. This is a good thing (we need the snow pack!), but I had planned to hike out to my go-to waterfall Canyon Creek Falls on Saturday afternoon with the river raging at 50,000 cubic feet per second. When I woke up it was at 20,000 and dropping fast. I did not feel like hiking there now. Certainly, there is no question it would have been awesome but it was nothing that I had not seen before. I wanted something different if I was going to hike in the pouring rain. Also, it is probably a good thing I did not go there because they closed the freeway on Saturday afternoon. I might have been stuck.

So anyway … change of plan. I decided to go to Point Reyes instead. The rain there was supposed to be lightening up or stopping by the late afternoon. Off I went.

It rained the entire drive and was still raining when I arrived at the trailhead at around 2pm. It is an easy hike amongst the killer cows down to the beach. I do not think they liked all the rain. They were mooing very loudly. I had to cross the creek at the top of the falls. It was flowing strong and I would be getting my feet wet (normally this creek is dry except after a lot of rain). Crossing was not too much of a problem except it was very deep. I stuck my pole in to find the bottom and I could not find it! That is crazy for such a small creek. Anyway, I found a spot that was not too deep and I made it safely across. Then I had to descend the cliffs down to the beach. It was a bit muddy and slippery but it wasn’t too bad (which is good because I was a bit worried that it would be too dangerous). Bolinas Point Falls was raging. A fantastic 42 ft. high cascade. Not bad for a waterfall that is dry for most of the year.

I messed up. I was not using my brain properly. There was a second waterfall here that I wanted to go to. I did not make it. The tide was coming in fast, much quicker than I anticipated. As I hiked up the beach to the second waterfall the waves were already almost up to the cliffs. I still had a long way to go to reach the falls (and then I would have to hike back). I did not want to be trapped by the tide so I decided to play it safe and turn back. If I had gone to the second waterfall first then I would have had time to go to both, but I spent too much time taking photos at the first waterfall. Stupid madman. On the bright side I did see a coyote on the beach. It ran away and up the cliffs as soon as it saw me. And I saw a second one on the road later. Not a bad way to end the year. It was an awesome rainy day hike in Point Reyes National Seashore.

You may be thinking after this weekend, we are going to have a great winter with above average precipitation! You may be thinking, we’ve had enough, stop raining already! As of right now, we have a snow pack about 200% of average. Surely that is enough. If you are thinking that, you would be wrong! Has the fat lady sung yet? No, she hasn’t. Remember last year? We were well above average in December and then we received almost zero precipitation in January, February and March. Nada. We ended up well below average for the year. Winter in California is four months, not one month. I read one report that said the same thing is going to happen this year, and already now it seems we are starting an extended dry period after this past weekend. What is my point? My point is: don’t get so excited yet. Keep praying for rain and snow. It’s not over yet.

Whenever I go to the Bay Area I am almost always disappointed with the waterfalls. About 90% of the time they have low and disappointing flows. I keep wanting to go back there because there are many waterfalls I still want to see. I should have gone to Oroville instead. However, I thought if I went on Saturday during the big storm, then the waterfalls would be good. They should be good. I had plans to see four falls, including three new ones. The first one was one I have been to before: Arroyo San Jose Falls.

As I started the easy hike up to the waterfall I was stunned: the creek was completely dry! We are in the middle of a huge storm and the creek is still dry from the summer? I just drove 2 hours to see this? This is a fairly decent sized creek. I expected this one at least to be flowing quite well. It was dry. Nonetheless, I continued on the hike. Well, I’m glad I did not turn back because as I came close to the waterfall, I found water in the creek. It was flowing up at the falls and then went underground. It was not great. But at least it was not dry.

There were a couple kids playing in the creek at the waterfall so I went off to the side to take photos. I did not want to disturb their play (I’m not that mean!), and also it was probably a better angle from the side anyway. After photographing this waterfall I decided to skip the other waterfalls. I did hike a bit more but in the end I figured it was not worth the effort. Considering the low flow in Arroyo San Jose, I knew the other creek would have been just a trickle at the very most. I will have to come back. Hopefully next time it will not be a disappointment.