Leon Turnbull Photography

I just returned from a marvelous and very quick weekend trip to Yosemite National Park, a much needed time for me to get away from the grind. I am tired, sore, and I have a zillion pictures to process. My goal this trip was to visit “different” waterfalls in Yosemite, ones that are off the beaten path, and ones that I have not seen before.

First up is Foresta Falls. Actually, this is Lower Foresta Falls. The vast majority of visitors to Yosemite do not know about Foresta Falls, which is a 40 ft. cascade on Crane Creek near the settlement of Foresta, in the northern end of the park. Those who may know about it wouldn’t bother to visit it because it is not very exciting compared to the waterfalls in the valley. Of those few who do know about Foresta Falls, only a small fraction of those know about Lower Foresta Falls, which is just down the road a short distance from the upper falls, and is a much bigger waterfall. All in all, Lower Foresta Falls is about 200 ft. high. Still nothing to sneeze at compared to Yosemite or Bridalveil Falls, but a fabulous cascade nonetheless. The reason most people would not know about Lower Foresta Falls is because it is not marked on any map. In fact, there are three guidebooks published dealing exclusively with California waterfalls. All three mention the upper Foresta Falls, but none of them say squat about Lower Foresta Falls. I find that rather amusing. It is only another mile down the road.

Anyway, onto my story. I woke up at 2:30AM in the morning, after about 3 and a half hours of sleep. I was planning to leave at 2:45AM to get to Yosemite by sunrise. Astonishingly, my wife had not gone to bed yet! She often stays up late, but this was a bit ridiculous. Why are you still up, honey? She said she was staying awake until I got up, because she didn’t want to wake me when she came to bed. That was thoughtful of her, but arck, she wouldn’t have woken me up. So anyway, I grab my coffee, and I hit the road. 2:45AM.

As I arrived in Yosemite, it was raining. The weather forecast did not call for rain. I don’t really mind the rain as long as it’s not so bad that I can’t take photos, and it wasn’t raining very hard. Just off and on. I get down to the first waterfall, the upper Foresta Falls. I wasn’t sure if I could drive on the road, or if I would have to walk to it. The road was very narrow and a bit rough, but I managed it with my SUV. I just wondered how I would turn the beast around on this narrow road. The upper falls is kinda nice but nothing too special. It was quite difficult to photograph from the bridge (which is the only spot it can be photographed from), due to all the mist from the falls. This would be the theme for my weekend. Too much mist to photograph.

After the upper falls, I continued on down the road. Now I was really unsure if I should just walk or continue driving. I decided to save my energy (which I would need later in the day), and drive. The road was very rough and very narrow. Again, I made it down to the lower falls without incident. Once down at the lower falls, I had to turn the beast around on the narrow road. Not an easy task. Think Austin Powers (except with a 200 foot drop-off on one side of the road). I think I came pretty close to getting stuck.

Lower Foresta Falls is about 200 ft. in total height. About half of the falls is above the bridge and the other half is below the bridge. I did scramble down to the bottom of the falls, which was quite tricky. It was worth the effort but it was difficult to photograph the falls from the bottom due to obstructing trees and bushes. I liked this photo much better, which is just a small portion of the falls above the bridge. It was a good start to my weekend.