Leon Turnbull Photography

On Saturday we headed up to Chico for lunch to celebrate my wife’s birthday with the rest of the family. We went to La Hacienda, or what I like to call La Barfienda, since I have never had a good meal here, and it is the absolute worst Mexican restaurant that I have been to. However, for some strange reason, my wife and everyone else really likes this restaurant, and since it was my wife’s choice, well, guess where we went? I managed to find something edible on the menu this time, however, so I can’t complain too much.

Afterwards, as per a prior agreement I had made with Tara, I left everyone in Chico and drove back down to Hwy 70 and into the Feather River Canyon to check out some waterfalls. It could be my last waterfall trip for awhile as there is now no more rain in the long range forecast. We seem to be looking at a drought year here now for sure, which I am rather depressed about at the moment. It is very hard to keep up hope after such a very dry winter thus far.

Anyway, my first stop was Elephant Butte, where I found quite a large crowd of people here, not waterfallin but rock climbing. I could see the waterfall from the road, and I could also see that it was not flowing much. It would be pointless to try to shoot it, so I continued to Jackass Creek. This one was flowing much better, and I was hoping to get down to it, but when I arrived I could see it was very steep and brushy. With a good ankle, I could have done it, but it would be foolish to do it right now. Did I mention that my son gave me a good kick (accidentally of course) in the ankle at lunch? Oooh, did that ever hurt. The ankle is fine now if you do not touch it, but just the slightest touch is quite painful (and that kick was a lot more than a slight touch).

So Jackass Creek was strike two. I had one last chance for a good waterfall before I had to get back to Chico to pick up my family. I have been to Bear Ranch Creek Falls before, and I knew it was an easy hike. Only about a mile long, and it is all on a defined trail. I had no troubles hiking up to it and my ankle was perfectly fine. I realized after this hike that I can hike anywhere now as long as I stay on trail. Once I get off trail, the terrain gets much steeper, and much rockier, and it is just too difficult and dangerous with a bad ankle. So I just need to do all my waterfallin’ on established trails until my ankle heals completely. The trouble is that pretty much all the waterfalls on my list to see this year are off trail. Perhaps it is good (a blessing in disguise?) that I hurt my ankle in a drought year (if I had hurt it last year for instance, I would have killed myself! – just kiddin – sort of).

Anyway, Bear Ranch Creek Falls is a really nice 81 ft. high drop, and as I said, it is very easy to get to. In high water, it is next to impossible to get a photo of it from this location, as there is so much mist here. In low water flows, like it is now, it is actually quite a lot nicer and a lot easier to photograph.

After I got back to Chico we drove down to Oroville for dinner at Jakes Burgers. Mmmm, now that is so much better than La Barfienda. LOL.