MAD SCRAMBLE
After work on Thursday I headed up to Devils Falls to do some exploring. My wife is out of state, so that means I will not be able to go hiking as per usual on the weekend since I will have my daughter with me. My son is up at Nana’s, probably driving her crazy. Speaking of my daughter, Wednesday evening was incredible. She danced at a pre-game show for a Sacramento Kings NBA game (vs. Chicago Bulls). It was so awesome and fun, and the girls were just absolutely fantastic. What an experience for them to dance in a big arena with so many people watching (of course, there weren’t really that many people watching since it was a pre-game show, but there were still quite a few). We were able to watch the dance from the front row on the floor, and I was able to videotape it for posterity. Afterwards, we watched the basketball game (in which the Kings clobbered the Bulls – which is pretty amazing in itself considering they are a last place team), and Nekoda was really into the game, clapping and cheering the entire game. She thoroughly enjoyed her experience, and I am so proud of her.
Anyway back to Devils Falls. You may recall I said earlier I was planning to go back here to look for new waterfalls. Well guess what? I did. And I found one too. The plan was to climb up above Devils Falls and try to find more waterfalls upstream. The very first time I came to Devils Falls, I went up to the top of it, but I did not go very far. I had not been up there since. That was about 100 years ago. This time, I went much further. It is literally a mad scramble up the mountain above Devils Falls. There is a path (actually many paths), because people often go up here, but you are essentially climbing up the mountain on all fours; it is steep, with crumbly ground, and overgrown branches all over the place. The good news is that the fire last year cleared out the brush and poison oak, and the ticks as well. I did get one tick on me, and it totally freaked me out. I did not find it on me until afterwards on the drive home, I felt in my hair and the little bugger came off onto my hand. I slammed on the brakes, got out of the car, brushed it off, then madly shook my hair all over in case there were more. There were no more but for the rest of the night I was constantly feeling my hair for other ticks. Ooh, shivers!
Anyway back to Devils Falls. I scrambled up and came upon this very decent 29 ft. high slide. I did not stop, because I wanted to go much further up the creek and was hoping to find an even bigger and better waterfall. I went quite a ways, but did not find anything bigger. There were plenty of small falls and cascades, but nothing struck my fancy too much. The entire creek drainage, however, is very scenic and with a lot more flow in the creek I think you could definitely find plenty of excellent photographic opportunities. If you like mad scrambling, that is. It is not an easy task to climb up there. I went back down to this lower slide and found a spot to photograph it. It was starting to get dark so I quickly took my shots then scuttled back down the mountain to the car. It was a great evening at Devils Falls.