Leon Turnbull Photography

Here’s another view of the bottom of Horsetail Falls, this time with a bit of a glimpse of the upper section as well. I hope you’re not getting tired of Horsetail Falls photos because I do not have much else to share right now. Waterfall season is over in this area of northern CA. Most waterfalls now are dry or just trickles. It is mostly too hot for hiking anyway. I’d love to go somewhere out of state but we don’t have money or vacation time for that. Horsetail Falls is an exception though and still flies strong. I may even try to get back there one more time this summer. It is certainly a fantastic location.

On Friday evening I took my son Jadon on a fun hike to Shealor Lake, near Silver Lake. He had asked me earlier in the week if he could go on a hike with me, and I immediately said “absolutely”! He usually does not want to go hiking with me, so I was surprised he wanted to this week, and definitely pleased that he did, but where would be a good place to go? I thought Shealor Lake would be a good option, as it was not overly difficult, and also there is (supposedly) a couple waterfalls there as well. The hike was really really good. There was a nice stiff breeze keeping us on the cool side (though it was 100 degrees in Sacramento), the hike was gorgeous with great views, and the lake itself is very pretty. The waterfall was completely dry however. I was not expecting much, but I thought it would be flowing a little bit at least. I definitely will be returning here next spring. Well we took pictures of the lake then headed back up the hill to our car. I thought we could go on one more little hike to Granite Lake Falls, which I thought might be flowing a bit better. Only barely. That waterfall was just a trickle, not even worth a picture. So all in all, I had a great evening with my son, and a great hike to a beautiful lake, but no waterfalls.

On Saturday, we were not planning to do anything, but when my wife woke up (at 11AM!), she came up with an idea. Let’s all go to Lake Tahoe for the day! Great idea. So after eating lunch at home, we headed up the hill. First off, we went on a short hike to Upper Glen Alpine Falls. It was quite a hot day, even up in the mountains. Gee whiz, I thought we were going to Tahoe to escape the heat! We arrived at the waterfall, which was flowing ok. I like Upper Glen Alpine Falls a lot because it does not need a lot of water in the creek to look nice. There was indeed not a lot of water flowing in the creek, and it was easy to rock hop across to the other side. I’ve never been able to do that before. We relaxed in the shade on the rocks along with another couple that was already there and took some pictures. Then I decided to do something only slightly crazy with my kids. Take a shower under the waterfall! It was actually quite fun, and quite cold. My kids did it also and had a blast. Tara decided to stay dry and miss the fun, but she did take photos of us crazies. After this we went to the beach at Fallen Leaf Lake, where the kids had fun swimming in the lake, and jumping off a big rock that was in the lake. Finally, after dinner, we went over to Eagle Falls for sunset. Even late in the day, there seemed to be a large amount of people at the falls. There were no clouds so I just took photos of the waterfall, which also is on its last legs for the summer, but I scrambled down the cliff to the bottom of the first tier. It was steep and a bit sketchy in places, but I made it down safely, then crossed the creek to take photos. There seemed to be a constant stream of people at the top of the falls, looking over the edge, and taking pictures; waiting patiently … not my favorite thing to do, but thankfully there were no mosquitoes. I went back up on the other (south) side of the creek, which seemed to be much easier (and safer). Fun fun fun at Lake Tahoe with the family on a hot hot day.

I said I would figure out a way to get to this one. This is the lower section of Lower Horsetail Falls. It is 56 ft high which makes the total height of Lower Horsetail 91 ft high. I know you’re wondering how I did it, right? So how did I do it?

I said I was happy happy on my last post after getting to the bottom of upper Horsetail Falls. Part of that was also that I got to this lower slide on the same day. With Pyramid Creek flowing so much stronger this week I was positive that I would not be able to cross it. Nonetheless I decided to go check it out anyway and thus arrived at the top of Lower Horsetail. Funny that. It actually looked cross-able. The creek was flowing swiftly at the top of the falls but it was not deep, so I decided to give it a go and donned my water shoes. I made it across without any difficulty. In actuality, this is probably THE only safe crossing place on the entire length of the creek up to the very top of Horsetail Falls; nonetheless if the creek was flowing any stronger I would not have been able to do it. After the crossing I left my water shoes on and made my way down the granite rock on the other side. It was very easy until I reached the bottom of the cascade. There was one very tricky, wet, steep, and slippery part that I needed to cross in order to get over to the falls. I slipped on the wet rock but I caught myself. Whew. Once over beside the creek I was able to make my way to a great viewpoint looking up at the waterfall and setup my tripod and my feet partially in the cold rushing stream. It is a terrific cascade and I was very happy to get here.

I have been to Horsetail Falls probably nine or ten times before, yet I (surprisingly) had never been to the very bottom of the falls before. From the spot of my previous photo (of the upper falls) there is still one more drop below that, a 35 foot cascade. After shooting the main upper section first, I set out to remedy this calamity on my way back down. There is a path through the bushes leading down to this lower section but the final part is a bit on the steep and slippery side. I decided I could butt slide down it because it was not really too bad and I was pretty sure I could easily get back up since there were plenty of bushes to grab onto (and indeed it was easy getting back up). Well I made it down and imagine my surprise when I found a waterwheel here (a waterwheel is formed when the fast rushing water collides with rocks or holes, then sprays out and upwards in a large arc). I had no idea Horsetail Falls had a waterwheel. I have never seen any photos from this location before but it is certainly an incredibly sweet place. Discover something new every time, that may be my new motto.

I took some photos but I was not happy with them, so I returned here again the next week (yesterday), anxious to explore this area more intently. There was actually quite a bit more water flowing in the waterfall than the previous week, and more bugs (but not mosquitoes). Strange. Anyway, I put my water shoes on so I could make my way down right to the bottom of the falls, then crossed over the rocks to the far side, as far as I could possibly get. The stream was rushing too fast to cross completely or even get in the middle of it, but I was able to get some fantastic perspectives. This is an amazing secret little spot. So remarkable. So beautiful. Who would’ve thunk that Horsetail Falls had so much more to offer. Once again, I was the last one off the mountain, and I returned home happy happy happy.

The Robbers Fire is currently burning out of control in one of my favorite stomping grounds near Colfax and Foresthill, only about 20 percent contained as I write this. I’m not sure exactly what has burned, but I believe up to six waterfalls may be burning right now: Devils Falls, Shirtail Creek Falls, Mexican Gulch Falls, Indian Creek Falls, Upper/Lower Chamberlain Creek Falls, not to mention the fabulous wildflowers on Windy Point. Once this fire is out, it will be interesting to see what has burned or not. I maintain that forest fires are a healthy and natural thing (though I have heard that this fire may not have started naturally, which is very bad), and among other things they clear out all the brush and undergrowth, which is desperately needed; but of course we certainly pray that no one will lose their homes because of this fire, and they say this could happen if the fire jumps the river, and I also sure don’t want to see that beautiful wildflower area burned up, which would also be sad.

Anyway, back to Horsetail Falls. After shooting the main section of Horsetail Falls I retreated back down the mountain semi quickly because I wanted to get back to Lower Horsetail Falls, which I have only been to once before.

I like that whenever I am here I am always the last one off the mountain. Considering how very busy this trail is during the day it is not so easy to accomplish. It is like a special bond or something I have with this mountain, always being the last one down. Well I did end up being the last one down again but I had to battle it out with some other people this time. I passed up a couple older people coming down from the top of Horsetail firstly (then they passed me when I took a detour to the lower falls). When I arrived at the lower falls there was (very surprisingly) another photographer there shooting the falls. I do not normally see other photographers unless I am in a popular location such as Yosemite. He was in my way so I had to wait for him and he was taking a sweet old time but I waited patiently, and while I waited I thought hard about how I could possibly get down to the lower section of this waterfall. The upper part (shown here) is 35 ft high but there is a lower part as well, which is just as big or bigger. The only way to get to it would be to cross the creek but this is impossible to do when the creek flows strong (which is most of the year). Perhaps in late summer? I’m not sure but I’ll figure out a way. Well all that thought strained my brain but the other photographer finally moved out of the way so I made my way down to creek level and started taking some photos of this cool looking slide. It was a great evening in the Desolation Wilderness.