Leon Turnbull Photography

It is not so good. Overall, as of April 1, California has a 50 percent of normal snowpack. The huge storm we received in March essentially raised us from 30 percent at the beginning of the month to 50 percent. I had heard and was anticipating to see about 65 percent figures but this is not the case. Breaking it down more there is a very large variance between the northern and southern parts of the state this year. The north fared much better and are up around 80 to 95 percent of normal. Central CA and Tahoe are around 50 percent and the Southern Sierra is down around an ugly 40 percent.

April 1 is the magic date for measuring snowpack. Normally after this date the snow starts melting and we do not receive very much more precipitation. The snow has already started melting and the river levels in the mountains are higher.

What does this mean? Will there be a waterfall season this year in CA? The answer is yes there will be and yes it has already started. But it will not last very long nor will it be as spectacular as usual. The meager snowpack will melt very quickly and once it is gone the creeks will go dry. My suggestion to you is to get out into the mountains this month and enjoy yourself, as much as possible. A lot of the roads are still closed which presents a difficulty but some may be open or will open soon. I think by end of May or even earlier most of the snow will be all melted. So get out there and get to it!

This photo is from Russian Gulch State Park. The hike into the falls is about 2.5 miles and very easy. It is a popular hike especially when the creek is flowing as it was on this day. As I hiked in I counted the hiker groups coming back and based on the number of cars in the parking lot tried to figure if I would be alone at the falls. I like to have my waterfalls to myself! Not so on this day, there were a couple groups already at the falls and another came in behind me. The good news is that the sun had gone behind some clouds and I had nice lighting for photos. I did not have to wait for anyone to get out of the way but I did have to tell someone else to wait for me, someone who wanted to climb out on that big log to get as close to the falls as possible, while his girlfriend looked on nonchalantly. As for me, I had much more anxiety than her, wondering if he would slip and tumble into the creek. He did not.

There are a lot of jumbled logs around the falls as you can see from the photo. You might think I would give this one a rather low rating and say it is such an ugly waterfall. You might think so yourself. But this is not the case with this waterfall. These logs are very much part of the character and personality of Russian Gulch Falls. Very much like that big log across Lion Slide Falls. Can you imagine that waterfall without that log? It is the same thing with this one. This waterfall may not be huge but it does have a lot of character.