Leon Turnbull Photography

Emerald Pools Take Three.

This weekend they were still releasing water from Lake Spaulding into the South Yuba River so I took one last trip up to see the Emerald Pools on Sunday afternoon after church. (and as it turned out, on Monday morning the faucet was turned off; I got to see it on the last day the river was still running).

I wanted to get down to the lower Emerald Pools on the north side of the river this time and try to get a decent shot of the falls from there.

Along the way I stopped off at the Upper Emerald Pools to attempt to locate my sunglasses where I think I must have dropped them. Could not find them. Bummer.

Continuing on, I made it down to the brink of the lower falls in short order. My goal was to photograph the lower tier of the falls from the north side cliffs (which I did) but what I found much more intriguing was the view looking down the falls from the brink of the upper tier. Incredibly cool. It was actually easy to get right down beside the falls. I got over as close to the edge as I dared (which was pretty close), sat down on the rock, and setup my tripod. The biggest thing I was worried about was dropping my tripod/camera over the brink, but I kept a very tight rein on them. It was quite an exciting location. After this I went along the cliffs to get a good view of the lower tier, then took a shortcut back to my car on Bowman Rd., making it back home by dinner time. It was a great Sunday afternoon.