Leon Turnbull Photography

I was very ecstatic when I learned that the trail to Toketee Falls was open. This trail has been closed since the spring of 2008 when a huge storm pounded this area and caused heavy damage to the trail and viewing platform at Toketee Falls. I had heard that the trail was not supposed to open until next year, but I also knew of people who had gone in there earlier this year (at risk of a $5000 fine), and they had indicated that the trail had been completely re-built. I wondered about this. Toketee Falls was one of the main waterfalls that I wanted to see on my trip to Oregon. I’ve been wanting to see this one for years now. Would I risk a huge fine by going in there even though it was still closed? I don’t know if I would or not. With my luck, I would get caught and a $5000 fine is something I sure could not afford. Nonetheless, we stopped at the trailhead on our way past and lo and behold, the trail was open! Hoo yah! I was so excited and happy to see this! This trail now being open made the whole trip to Oregon worthwhile for me. It must have opened on Memorial Day. I was ecstatic. We would be one of the very first people in to see Toketee Falls (legally) in 3 years and this is probably one of the very first photos taken of this falls (legally) in 3 years.

Toketee Falls was flowing very heavily as well, due to all the recent rain. The river was just pounding down this gorge, an amazing sight. Toketee Falls certainly lives up to its name (“graceful”), but it was also very powerful with all the water flow.

The forecast had indicated the worst day of our trip would be Wednesday with rain scheduled all day. Well, it was a lot worse than just that. The rain started Tuesday afternoon and evening, and did not let up all night or all the next day. The already saturated ground around our campsite turned into a very large pond. But it was a lot worse than just that. The wind was a nightmare. It started Tuesday evening before we went to bed. We battened down the hatches as best we could. But the wind got worse as the night went on. Sometime during the early morning hours, the wind literally blew our tent down. I went out in the pouring rain to see what I could do. However, the ground was so saturated and wet that I could not drive the stakes back into the ground. The wind kept pounding the side of the tent. There was nothing that could be done, so I made the call to the rest of the family inside the tent: “abandon ship!”. We got everyone (dog included) out of the tent and into the SUV where it was dry. The tent was left abandoned to the elements. At that point, most everything in the tent was still dry. But the wind and rain kept pounding the tent. The ground was now a small lake. By morning, the water eventually made its way into the tent, getting a lot of our clothes wet.

What could we do? We had one more day scheduled at this campground, but everything was soaking wet. Even if the rain had stopped, it would have been still impossible to get everything dry by that night (and it was supposed to continue raining all day long – which it did). We decided to pack up everything, and throw everything wet and all into the back of the Gator (we call our SUV the Gator because it is dark green). Tara and I went out in the rain to do this, while the kids stayed dry in the vehicle. We then made our way into town and found a place for breakfast. At breakfast, we took a family vote. The options were either to (1) drive back to California to Nana and Papa’s at Red Bluff, or (2) drive to Diamond Lake as originally planned, but stay for a night in the lodge there instead of camping. Camping was just not an option since everything was so soaked and there was no way to get it dry by day’s end. Jadon voted for California, Nekoda voted for Diamond Lake, and Tara voted for Diamond Lake as well (but I was sure she did this just to appease me). That left me with the deciding vote, and I voted for California. Time to tuck in my tail and run home.

Now I know all of you Oregonians will be saying “you wimpy Californian!”. What’s wrong with a little bit of rain, anyway? And you would probably be right. I love the rain, but camping in the pouring rain with everything completely soaked is not a fun experience, especially with kids. At least you Oregonians can go home to a dry house at the end of the day, right? Not only that, but the forecast was not getting any better. More rain was coming on Thursday and Friday, with a warning of flooding on Friday due to excessive rain and snow melt (the Pineapple Express was on its way). It just didn’t look very good.

But on the drive back, I changed my vote. My reasoning was as follows: The rain on Wednesday was supposed to let up by the end of the day, and Thursday morning was supposed to be just cloudy, with the next rain not beginning until Thursday afternoon. If we stayed for one night at Diamond Lake in the lodge, then we could get up in the morning and see quite a few waterfalls in the area before the rain started up again. Then we could drive back to California later that day, and get out of there before any flooding started on Friday. I would not get to see all the waterfalls I had planned to see, but at least I would get to see quite a few of them. Also, I would have been very disappointed and regretful if I had just gone back to California too soon.

So that is exactly what we did. The rain was constant and heavy all day on Wednesday as expected. By evening, after dinner time, it let up a bit and finally stopped during the night. We woke on Thursday to cloudy skies with even a bit of sun poking through. Perfect.

This is one of the waterfalls we saw on Thursday morning, majestic Watson Falls, 272 ft. high. It is the tallest waterfall in the Diamond Lake area, and certainly one of the best. We all hiked up to the upper viewpoint, which is right beside the falls. It is an awesome experience standing there, as you will get completely drenched (even more so than from all that crazy rain). Both Jadon and Nekoda loved this experience, saying it was very awesome. This is why I love waterfalls so much.

Just trying to break up all the waterfall photos recently. This is an anemone I found while beachcombing at Sunset Bay State Park one evening. Overcastness and lack of nice sunset clouds forced me to do some exploring along the beach instead of shooting a sunset. Don’t worry, we’ll get back to more waterfall photos soon. 🙂

It rained during the night, but we woke up to no rain, just overcast skies. That would not last for long, but for long enough.

We made the very very very very long drive up to the Kentucky Falls trailhead in Siuslaw National Forest. You have to really want to go there. Of course, I did really want to go there, knowing that there were three spectacular waterfalls along this trail. The trail descends gently to the first waterfall in only a half mile of hiking, Upper Kentucky Falls. This is where I said good-bye to my family. After this first falls, they headed back up the trail to the car to have lunch, while I continued down the trail. The last two waterfalls involve a 4 mile round trip hike, and the trail is much steeper than the first part (though not really too bad). Nekoda would not have been able to do the entire hike and Jadon wanted to eat lunch, so I went on alone (well not quite alone, I took my dog Kaya with me). It was quite a pleasant hike down to the twin waterfalls, Kentucky Falls and North Fork Falls. These two waterfalls are incredible, dropping nearly side by side, each about 100 ft. high. The mist from the falls again was a big factor, especially for Kentucky Falls. As I was shooting Kentucky Falls, we scared up a lone female hiker. Actually, she scared us as she came up from the trail below us and Kaya started barking at her (she was just startled is all, she is a very gentle dog). That caused her to slip on the wet platform and almost bite the dust. My wife said that when she got back to her car, she didn’t have much concern about stripping off all her clothes to change in full view of everyone at the trailhead (which … was just my wife and kids). Anyway … I dried off my lens and then made my way down to the river to get a better view of North Fork Falls. This is the waterfall shown above. This falls is definitely one of my favorites from the trip. It is a real beauty. And I was far enough away that there was not too much mist. Sweet. My dog Kaya, who is almost 10 years old now, took a short nap beside the river while I made my photos. These longer hikes may be getting a bit much for her, but she loves them so much. Anyway, we hiked back up to the car in good time. The rain started up in force as soon as I got back, and it essentially did not let up for the rest of the day, night, and next day. And it definitely got a lot worse, but stay tuned for that story.

We then drove down to Umpqua River Lighthouse and took a tour of that light. My wife is a lighthouse lover, and this one is quite an interesting one. Definitely worth taking the tour. Afterwards, Nekoda noticed the enticing sand dunes from the overlook at the lighthouse, and insisted on going down there to play in the sand (and the rain). Daddy obliged and took her down there, and she had a lot of fun building a little sand castle. Then I told her we should run down the dunes as fast as we could. She had a total blast doing that.

We rolled into Coos Bay on the coast of Oregon amidst the lightly raining skies. Before going to our campsite, I thought it would be a good plan to go to visit the two waterfalls in the area that I had wanted to see, namely Golden Falls and Silver Falls. They are both located practically side by side in a state park by the same name (Golden and Silver Falls State Park). It is a bit of a drive out to the park, and once there we found extremely wet and muddy conditions (a theme for the rest of the week). We had our lunch by the car on the wet picnic tables, then made the hike up the slippery, wet, and (did I say) muddy trail to the waterfalls.

Both Silver Falls and Golden Falls are very majestic, about 200 feet high each. And both were flowing very mightily. So much so, that it was incredibly misty at the viewpoints, and I not only had to battle the rain to take my photos, but also the mist from the falls. It was a very difficult task. This photo is of Golden Falls.
After viewing the two waterfalls, we made the drive back to the coast, where our campsite was at Sunset Bay. By the time we got there, the rain had stopped (somewhat), and we were able to get the tent up before it started again. Then we had dinner at a local fish and chips shop, and then went to the beach for sunset. I was really hoping to get some nice sunset shots along the ocean (and thus, take photos other than just waterfall photos), but the bad weather did not break for sunrise or sunset the entire time we were there. On this first night it was not raining at least, but it was very overcast and there was no interesting sunset. We spent the evening beach combing instead, and found quite a few interesting critters in the tide pools.