Pauley
This weekend I took a trip up to Downieville to check out some new and old waterfalls. My first stop here was Pauley Falls. You may recognize this one, as it is the header waterfall I have in my blog. But as you can see, the flow was a lot more than when I was here previously in winter. Clearly, there was no way I could get right in the middle of the creek to take photos like I did when I was here the last time. I settled for just a quick shot from the side of the creek this time, as I did not want to spend much time here. I also did not feel like getting my feet into that cold snow melting creek. So what do you think? Should I change my header over to this new shot?
After stopping at Pauley Falls, I headed up to Federal Falls, which is another waterfall on this same creek but further upstream. It is a bit smaller than Pauley and not as nice a waterfall, but I will probably share that photo next.
My third destination ended up being a killer hike to try to find another new waterfall, but unfortunately I struck out. I scrambled up a mountain through poison oak to try to get to Humbug Creek Falls. I went further than I went last time, and came pretty close to the falls, but could not quite get there. I’m not sure if I could have gotten any further or not, but I was out of time and out of gas (literally). I needed to get home or my wife was going to be mad at me for being late (I was late anyway, and yes, she was not happy about it). The hike back took a lot longer as well, as the scramble back up the mountain was killer, and I was totally spent. When I got back to the car, my muscles were spasming, and I was incredibly hungry, but I had no food with me. I had to wait until I got to the small town of North San Juan, where I could pick up some food. I did get to a pretty interesting spot down in that canyon, with a good view up close of Little Humbug Creek Falls (which was roaring incredibly strong), but I am not sure about getting to that other waterfall down there, and I am just not sure if I will ever get back down there since the hike was so difficult.