Leon Turnbull Photography

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.

This is Alamere Falls from the cliffs. You don’t want to stand too close to the edge here.

As of Feb. 1, the snow pack is 77% of normal (northern CA), 71% (central Sierra), 69% (southern Sierra). Rainfall is 63% (north), 53% (central), 55% (south). Things are looking very bleak this year. I like to be optimistic, however. Optimistic that we will catch up in the last half of February and March, and get back to average by the end of winter. Pray for snow, everyone.

The photo is Upper Alamere Falls.

I was very warm during the night. I had to shed layers and did not use all the warm clothes I brought for sleeping (my pack could have been a lot less than 43 pounds). Nekoda was also warm, but Tara and Jadon were cold. I’m not really sure why Tara was cold, but I know why Jadon was cold: He is so stubborn, that is why. I bought him a $70 sleeping bag liner so he would be warm at night. He did not use it. (Nekoda used the one I bought for her and she was warm). Instead, he carried a heavy blanket in his pack! (that must have added 5 pounds to his pack on top of the 20.5 pounds I weighed). This did not keep him warm whatsoever. But would his father (who has much backpacking experience) know what would be best ? No, of course not. He has to do his own thing. As for hiking boots, I made him try on my old boots before the trip. He said they fit perfectly fine. When we got to the trailhead, he said they did not fit. So what did he do? He took out all the shoelaces from the boots and hiked in the boots with no shoelaces! Was that better? Of course not. For the hike back, I could have let him suffer more, but I gave him my trail shoes (which I happened to have along with me), and those fit him better. (but he then had to carry the heavy hiking boots in his pack). No wonder he struggled with his pack, carrying those extra (and unnecessary) heavy items. As for Nekoda, she had to bring along all her makeup on the hike. I wonder how much weight all those items added. Sigh. Teenagers.

We woke up to a beautiful sunrise and glorious morning. Tons of little birds swarmed around us as we ate our breakfast, looking for scraps and trying to steal my food as I sat at the picnic table. Tara and I walked down to the ocean and watched the huge waves while my daughter Nekoda struggled to get up and out of her warm sleeping bag (and it WAS a big struggle). I think it was 9:45am by the time we got going, and it was a 6 mile hike back to the trailhead.

We saw many hikers on the trail going to Alamere Falls. I thought it was funny because many of them missed the turnoff to the waterfall. It is not marked, and if you miss it, you will go all the way to Wildcat camp and have to walk to Alamere Falls along the beach. But at high tide, (as it was), you will be skunked and not be able to reach Alamere Falls. I think it would clue in once you passed the bridge over Alamere Creek that you missed the turnoff, but most people we saw seemed to be unprepared and have no clue. We corrected some of the hikers we saw to go back the right way, but another thing is the tide. It was high tide and the waves would be (I know they were) crashing right up against the cliffs. That means it would be impossible to go down to the beach to see the waterfall. If you did go down, you could easily be swept out to sea. I wonder how many people have died down there at high tide. Bottom line, people: be prepared! Check your map! Check the tides! Go to my website and get proper information!

We got back to the car at 1PM. The parking lot was completely full. All those people hiked to Alamere Falls and could not even see it except from the top. We ate our lunch, and then made the long drive home. It was an awesome two day trip to Point Reyes National Seashore.