Leon Turnbull Photography

I was surprised there were so many tracks in the snow along the Upper Truckee River: hikers, snowshoers, and even skiers. I didn’t realize this was such a popular route in the winter. There were even lots of animal tracks: rabbit, deer, bear, cougar. I’m kinda kidding, I don’t know how to tell one animal track from the next, but I do think I saw a cat track at one point.

I followed the trail along the river up above the first falls. My co-worker had told me of two more waterfalls upstream. I found the first one quickly enough, at least I think it must have been the first one he was talking about. It was just a small cascade though, kinda pretty but not a significant waterfall. I continued on, with high hopes. The trail eventually started heading away from the river. I have no idea where it was eventually leading but I think it might join up with the Pacific Crest Trail, which goes through this area. I did continue along the trail though, as far as possible. I had my GPS marked where I thought the waterfall would be, and when I got to about that elevation, I just headed off trail through the snow, directly back to the river. It was easy going through the snow, and I arrived back at the river shortly, and bingo, there was the waterfall! It was a beauty too, about 70 ft. high, dropping in two tiers, and was much nicer and bigger than the lower falls. The photo here just shows the lower section.

I call this one Upper Upper Truckee River Falls. That is a bit of a mouthful. But hey, it works. There were no other tracks at the waterfall, except for some rabbit tracks. Despite the popularity of the trail at the lower falls, I was the only one here this winter enjoying the beautiful upper falls.

I made my way down to the bottom of the falls to photograph it. There was a snow bridge there, and as luck would have it, the middle of the bridge is where I wanted to be to make my photograph. I tested the bridge gingerly, but firmly. It seemed quite sturdy enough, so I carefully made my way out and got my camera set up in position to photograph the falls. Essentially, the river was flowing right under me as I took this photograph. Don’t worry, I was careful. The worst thing that would have happened is that I would get a little (or a lot) wet. But the bridge held up, and I got my shot. Instead of returning back up to the main trail, I just followed along the river back to the bottom. It was a very fun day hiking through the snow at Tahoe.