My Secret Waterfall
One of my favorite trails in the greater Sacramento area is the Canyon Creek Trail at Gold Run. Waterfalls abound along this trail; in fact there are seven significant waterfalls on this trail which drops very steeply down to the North Fork American River. The biggest and best one is this beauty, towering 134 ft. high.
It is extremely difficult to find and follow this trail down Canyon Creek. It is so difficult that I’m amazed I ever found it to begin with, a few years ago. I have gotten temporarily lost on this trail as well in the past. This past weekend, I was anxious to get back here to these waterfalls because I have not been there in a couple years. I was pleased to see BLM signs at the trailhead and along the trail. There has been private land concerns here in the past, which is why I don’t post directions on my website. I am pretty sure though, that the trail still does cross private land. It would be nice if all of this trail became public land. It would be a mighty shame if this trail gets closed in the future because of private land issues. It is certainly one of the jewels of the Gold Country.
When I got down to the waterfalls, I was rather disappointed with the amount of water flowing in Canyon Creek. This creek normally has a lot of flow in it, and these waterfalls can be just amazing. I knew that they would not be roaring this day. But with last week’s rain, I thought they would be a lot better than they were. They were still nice of course, and I really enjoyed myself down at the bottom of the big waterfall. The big waterfall is no picnic to find either, as it is tucked back in the canyon well out of view, and well off trail. I owe a lot of thanks to the late Russell Towle, who was the person who helped me find these fabulous waterfalls years ago.
The steep trail follows Canyon Creek all the way down to the river, and I would’ve loved to go all the way down. But, unfortunately, I had prior commitments and had no time to do that. So after enjoying the 134 foot beauty, I headed back on up the trail. I hope to return here again soon. That is, of course, if we get any more rain this winter.
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