REMOTE
I did it. I dragged myself out of the house on Sunday afternoon to go hiking. And I am glad.
I was initially intending to hike back to New York Canyon Falls (which of course, is my favorite CA waterfall). However, I could not drive as far on Foresthill Rd as I wanted. I could only drive as far as the bottom of Canada Hill, at which point I was stopped by intimidating snow mounds on the road that were stubbornly refusing to melt. I could have hiked from there and I would have made it to NYC for sure, but it would have made for a 10 mile round trip hike (which is more than I wanted to do), plus I would have been hiking back in the dark for sure (which I also didn’t really want to do). I could have done it though. Getting into NYC in mid-April would have been pretty sweet. How well would it have been flowing, though?
So anyway … I decided to go to a different spot. West New York Canyon. In particular, Upper West New York Canyon. You can see this waterfall in the distance from Canada Hill Ridge (this is the ridge that you go down from the top of Canada Hill to get to Upper New York Canyon Falls). From there it looks like a pretty tough waterfall to get to. Indeed, looking at the topo maps, it seems there are cliffs all around the waterfall, with sheer dropoffs of thousands of feet (kidding). I did not think it would be possible to get there, but I decided to go for it anyway. It is a much shorter hike, so I thought I would have plenty of time before dark.
I started hiking on an old dirt road from near Tadpole campground. This campground was wiped out in the forest fire a couple years ago. Indeed I often used the outhouse here before it got burned down (that is probably Too Much Information for you, I suspect). As you walk along this road, you are walking right through the middle of the devastation. It is intense, the devastation. Yet even so, the brush is already growing back. I noticed this clearly as I exited the road and descended down into West New York Canyon. My legs were pretty scratched up by the end of it. They complained loudly in the shower later that night. It is a 1200 ft. descent to the falls. I tried to take a more traversing type of route down, to avoid what I thought would be steep cliffs closer to the falls. It took quite a while to make the descent. I thought I was making a big mistake, it was taking much too long to get down. Far too long. I would be hiking back in the dark for sure. I kept going though, and eventually I traversed my way over to where the waterfall was, wondering if I would be able to get any view of the thing at all. To my delight and surprise, I saw that I could indeed make my way down to a grand viewpoint just below the waterfall. Awesome. It didn’t even require any dangerous cliff scaling. Well, maybe just a tad. The waterfall is 150 ft. high, an amazing sight as it drops and slides its way down the canyon. From here the view is astounding. I could not see the lower waterfalls on the creek, but I could see where they would be. You can see the Chert Knoll far below. This is the location where you can view New York Canyon Falls from up close. I do not think you can see this waterfall from down there, however. The angle must be slightly off. Or something. Of course you can see the Canada Hill Ridge beside you. I could not see Macklin Ridge on the other side of it. For those of you who may not know, Macklin Ridge is the previously unnamed ridge which I named after my good friend Rob Macklin, who was the one who initially suggested we hike along the ridge in order to get to New York Canyon Falls, and it turned out to be the absolute best route to that waterfall. He is such a genius.
The creek in West New York Canyon was not flowing all that impressively. In mid-April it should be gushing with snow melt. There is not much snow left up here, just a little bit left, and the creeks are well past peak flow already. I calculated this year that peak snow melt happened on around April 1 (no fooling). This is the first year I have calculated this so I’m not sure what it was last year, but certainly it is normally much later. When I was here in late April years ago with my brother-in-law, New York Canyon Falls was thundering. This year, right now, based on what I saw in West New York Canyon, I think it is far past its thundering state. Maybe it never even reached thundering state this year.
It is a big ascent back up the canyon. I decided to take a more direct route, i.e. straight up, thinking it would be quicker and shorter than the long traverse I made on the descent. It was indeed quicker and shorter, and perhaps a bit tougher. I wished I had come down this way though, but now I know for next time. Nonetheless, it was a huffer to ascend that 1200 ft. I arrived back at the car well before sunset. I think I would definitely like to return here when the creek is gushing. Maybe next year will be a better one.