Leon Turnbull Photography

Five years ago I went to Mill Creek Falls in Lassen Volcanic Natl Park with my friend, Brian Rueb. At that time, we both wanted (badly) to try to get down to the bottom of the waterfall. At that time, we both determined that it was foolhardy to do so, nuts, crazy, whacko, you name it. The terrain from the viewpoint on the trail is incredibly steep down to the bottom. As Brian put it, “things would not go well for you if you tried it”. However … shortly afterwards another friend of mine, Rob The Mountain Goat Macklin went to Mill Creek Falls, and he DID get to the bottom of the waterfall. Both Brian and I thought this was unbelievable craziness. But I know Rob well, and I know how he got to the bottom. No ropes. Just straight down the cliff. He is part mountain goat, you know – I am not kidding.

So five years pass, and I figure it is time to do this. In my mind I determined it could not really be as steep as I thought it was five years ago. The terrain is probably much tamer now. Five years of geology will have made the descent much shallower. There WILL be a way to get down. Well, not so much. I did come armed with a rope this time. When I arrived at the viewpoint, I quickly realized I would certainly need it too. The terrain was not any shallower, that was for sure. With the rope, I made it about halfway down to the bottom or perhaps a bit more than that. But the last section is much worse. There is nothing to hang onto, nothing to tie my rope to, and the descent is incredibly sketchy. It would be a long fall into nothingness if I slipped. I hummed and hawed for awhile, and decided to stop while I was still able to. I took this photo from halfway down the cliff, so the view angle from here is a little different and a little better than from up top along the trail. But darn I wanted to get to the bottom. Will I try again? In another five years? Yes I will. Next time … I will be bringing a much longer rope, one that will reach all the way to the bottom. Will that be enough?

The trail to Mill Creek Falls is not an easy one. It is 2 miles one way (though the sign says it is only 1.6 miles – it is not), and there are a lot of ups and downs on the hike (up 300 ft, down 200 ft, up 50 ft, down 100 ft – you get the idea). It is a huffer. But while as five years ago I remembered the hike practically killing me, this time around I found it to be a walk in the park. It may have something to do with the fact that last time I had climbed up Mt Brokeoff the night before, but I think it is mostly because I am in much better shape. I have lost 20 pounds in the past 6 months, and I feel great, I am in the best shape I have been in the last 14 years. It is so awesome to be able to bike to work every day now. It is such a big difference.

Another thing I noticed that was different from last time was the trailhead sign. This time around, there was no warning sign about mountain lions. It looked like someone had scratched it completely blank. Did the resident mountain lion move on to another part of the park to prey on unsuspecting hikers? Or more likely, perhaps it was the mountain lion himself that scratched off the warning sign – in order to make the hikers along the Mill Creek trail more unwary of being attacked? I joke about that but I did see some mountain lion tracks on the hike this time around. I am not kidding – I am pretty sure they were cat tracks. Hmmm.

Stay tuned folks because my next post from Lassen Volcanic Natl Park is going to be a shocker.

It was a very cold morning. It was probably about 30 degrees or so. I started hiking up the West Hat Creek trail to Paradise Meadows. There was fresh snow on Lassen peak from a recent storm, and that snow was now melting, and the creek was flowing quite strong again. Almost like spring. Except for the cold. Anyway, after a short hike I arrived at the upper waterfall on this creek. Now what? I thought.

It was easy to see that the one and only position to photograph this waterfall was … you guessed it … right in the middle of the creek. Did I say it was a very cold morning? I did not really want to get in that creek, but nonetheless, I reluctantly took off my hiking boots and put on my water shoes. Then I started wading into the creek. Holy crikey! Is that creek cold or what! This was real snow melt from Lassen Peak, and snow melt is always so much colder. If you have stood in a creek flowing from snow melt, you know what I am talking about. I stood in the middle of that creek, and my toes were going numb fast. Wooh! Well, I do have to say though, that it was a very good test for my new tripod. And it held up very well to the coldness. As for my toes, well that is a different story. But I survived without getting hypothermia. haha.

This past weekend, we headed up north and I went over to Lassen Volcanic National Park, again. I was leading a workshop on Saturday, but on Friday I headed up by myself to check out conditions. I was pleasantly surprised.

My plan was to head up West Fork Hat Creek to Paradise Meadow again. I was concerned the creek would not be flowing much, if at all. But thanks to a recent storm, there was fresh snow on Lassen Peak, and the creeks in the park were all flowing again quite nicely from the snow melt. They were also darn cold. That will be a subject of a subsequent post.

In the meantime though, I took this sunrise photo before I headed up the Paradise Meadow trail. It was sunrise as I got to the trailhead, and there was some pretty nice alpenglow light on the peak. I couldn’t resist taking this photo, even though there were not any great colorful clouds around the mountain.

On another note, I seemed to have hurt my leg quite badly. It started hurting the day before I went to Lassen, but it is much worse right now. I have absolutely no idea how I hurt it. But it is putting me out of hiking commission. Bummer. Yet I am still hoping to get out this next weekend to see some Fall colors.

This is cascade # 3 along the trail up to Paradise Meadows in Lassen NP. It is another pretty one, and it is about 20 feet high or so. I could not measure this one (or #4) because the battery in my laser rangefinder conked out. Bummer.

Here’s another little tidbit for you. This is not really the West Fork Hat Creek. None of these waterfalls are on the West Fork Hat Creek. They are actually all on an unnamed stream, which flows into the West Fork. But certain authors of certain guidebooks have called this series of falls West Fork Hat Creek Falls. I personally think they should be called Paradise Meadows Falls. But who am I to argue.

Here is one more from the bottom of Kings Creek Cascades, as the sun is starting to light up the canyon walls at top.