Leon Turnbull Photography

It was my kind of weekend. Rain. And lots of it. The storm is not over yet as I write this, but so far it has been enough to get the waterfalls flowing pretty good. When the waterfalls are flowing, you know I am going to be out finding some.

My destination was Emigrant Gap. I knew it was going to be a wet morning hike, and it was. I was out hiking for about 3 hours, and I was pretty soaked by the end of it. I was looking for some new waterfalls out in the Emigrant Gap area. I did not find any new ones, but I know there are some and I know where they are, so I will definitely be returning in the future.

After my first hike, which was a strikeout, I went to North Fork Falls which I have been to before. What I would really like someday is to photograph this waterfall in the snow, but I think it is pretty much not possible to get to it when there is snow here. Nonetheless, there was snow on the ground here as I hiked down to the falls. Very wet snow. I was surprised to see it, but there was not any around the waterfall, unfortunately. At the North Fork campground, I scared up a heron, which was the only thing alive I saw all morning. No other wildlife. No humans. I don’t even recall seeing any birds. They were all taking cover from the rain. Only I and the heron were crazy enough to be outdoors on this dreary day.

The North Fork of the North Fork American River was flowing quite strong due to the rain. This is actually the biggest I have ever seen this waterfall. And this made the river crossing below the falls a bit tricky. Usually you can just rock hop across very easily. There was one big step over a deep section of the river that I needed to make. I tried to roll a big log across to make the crossing easy for me, but the log ended up floating downstream instead. Doh. Well, fortunately, I did not really need the log, and I was able to step across on the slick rocks without incident. On the other side of the river, you need to work your way up the slope and then down to a viewpoint of the falls. This part is very difficult and quite dangerous, especially on the very wet and slick rocks. But I came prepared. With rope. I almost always take rope on my hikes in case I need it, but up to now, I have never used it. I really wanted to get down this section to get to a better viewpoint, so I looped the rope around a tree, and used it to make my way down the slope. It worked. Once down, I had to figure out how to photograph the waterfall in the rain, which is always the hardest part of going waterfallin’ in the rain. I had my wife’s umbrella with me, and was careful not to drop it over the cliff into the river as I held it over my camera as I took my photographs. On the way back, I decided to stay on the same side of the river instead of crossing back. There is no trail, but it is not hard. In fact, I think it is actually a much easier way to get to the waterfall. I’m sure I will be using that same route next time I am here. In the snow.