Leon Turnbull Photography

We saw plenty of birds on our whale watching trip to the Farallon Islands. Tons of cormorants and common murres, in particular (and of course, gulls). But it is tough to take photos of birds, especially when they are moving. I kinda liked how this one turned out though. It is a pigeon guillemot. It is rather a pretty bird too, I like those red feet.

Here is the standard view of 550 ft. Grouse Falls, from the Overlook viewpoint. It is certainly a spectacular waterfall, even when viewing it from across the canyon, a half-mile away.

I arrived here at about sunrise. It is an hour and a half drive from my home, and I was up at 4AM to get here in time. I was making great time until I got to within a 1 minute drive from the trailhead parking area. Two big trees were down in the middle of the road. It was a very narrow section of road, and so I had to turn my big gas guzzling SUV around to go back. I felt like I was in that scene from Austin Powers, when he was trying to turn his cart around in that narrow hallway. Well, I think I did a bit better job than he did. I parked the SUV along the side of the road, and walked the rest of the way.

If you are thinking this sure does not look like 550 ft. Grouse Falls, you will be forgiven. Is Leon off his rocker? What is he talking about now? This is actually the bottom 83 ft. section of spectacular Grouse Falls. You can’t see the upper section of the falls from here, but it is just above this waterfall.

If you’ve ever been to the Grouse Falls overlook, you may wonder how I could ever get down to the bottom. It is incredibly steep (1000 ft. down in about a half-mile), and incredibly brushy (manzanita galore). I’ve been down there twice now. The first time, I did not get any view of Grouse Falls at all. This time, I was determined. My goal and great desire was to get a close-up view of the entire 550 ft. of Grouse Falls. I was denied. I came to this dead end with towering cliffs on either side of the creek. No views of the big waterfall could be found. But I did get to this fantastic waterfall, the bottom 83 ft. of Grouse Falls.

It was worth the effort. But going back up that half-mile was a struggle. It took about an hour and a half to climb back up the mountain. Talk about steep. The GPS was a necessity as well. It was so brushy and there was so much dense tree growth, it was impossible to see where the overlook was until I was almost right back to it. I only knew where to go because the GPS was pointing me in the right direction. There was a lot of poison oak down there as well. I know what you are thinking. Here we go again. I could have sworn that the last time I was down there, there was no oak. In fact, I’m about 90 percent sure there was none. That is one of the reasons I wanted to try again this year. But this time, I found a lot of it. I was careful to avoid touching it, and I bathed myself thoroughly when I got home. I think I avoided getting it this time. Whew.

Bassi Falls crashes 109 ft. over a granite cliff up off Ice House Rd. near Pollock Pines, east of Sacramento. Wow! What an incredible waterfall to visit in the spring. I’ve been here a number of times before, but I had never seen it with so much water flowing over the falls. It was unbelievably awesome! I would say it is at peak flow right now with all the snow melting in the mountains, and if you live in the area and have never seen Bassi Falls at peak flow, I highly recommend making the very easy trip out to see it.

I was here at sunset, which is the best time to photograph the falls, with the nice warm evening light shining on it. I got right in the creek to take this photo. And boy, was it ever freezing cold! Worth it though, to get this photo.

I also went up to the top of the falls, which I also recommend doing. It is amazing to stand at the brink of this waterfall, as it hurtles over the cliff. It is dangerous though, so be very careful if you go. You don’t want to slip and fall in the creek up there, that is for sure.

This image of the Pt. Bonita Lighthouse was taken after dark, from the Marin Headleands. The exposure time was about 90 seconds. You can see the lights of San Francisco in the background. It is definitely a neat area to visit. We drove here after the sunset at Rodeo Beach. I’ve been wanting to get a night shot of this lighthouse for awhile now. I finally had a chance to do so this time.