Leon Turnbull Photography

This one should have been flowing better. Much better. I really wanted to get to a good waterfall this weekend. The last three weeks have been below satisfactory for me. Now make that four. Strike four.

My goal was to get to the Shealor Lakes waterfalls. I was certain they would still have decent flow. There was still snow on the mountains so that gave me some hope. However, as I climbed up the trail to the top of the ridge and looked down on the upper Shealor Lake, I could see that the inlet waterfall was not flowing. At all. Dang! It is June 1 and the waterfall should be flowing very well. There should be lots of snow still to melt. It should be amazing. Huh. I feel gipped this year. Last year, I did not feel this way. It was just as bad of a winter, but the year before that was beyond amazing so I didn’t mind so much. This is now the second straight bad year we have had. Waterfall season is done, and we barely had anything at all. I feel gipped. Sigh. Well, it is time to go to Oregon I guess.

Anyway, back to Shealor Lakes. What should I do? I pondered the dilemma for about 5 minutes (meanwhile, the sun continued to rise). If I turned back now before going down to the lake, I could get over to Granite Lake Falls in good light. I didn’t really want to go to that one, but it would be something at least. I could hear, however, that the outlet stream from the upper Shealor Lake was flowing. From the top of the ridge the creek sounded decent. I could perhaps get to the lower Shealor Lakes Falls. It might be flowing. I got down to the lake and to the outlet stream. Well, not really very decent after all. Kinda lame actually. I did see, however, that there was another waterfall at the outlet to the lake (pictured here). I did not know about this waterfall. It is 28 ft. high, and would certainly be a very pretty falls if the creek had good flow.

I continued on down to the lower Shealor Lake. The trail on this lower section is not very easy to follow, it is quite indistinct in many places, and there is a bit of brush to whack through as well. The waterfall down there is not on the same stream. I thought, however, that the drainage size would be the same and there would be a similar amount of water in the other creek. Not so. The waterfall was dry. Ugh! How disappointing.

I made my way back up to the upper lake and decided to stop to take a picture. Better this than nothing. As soon as I stopped, the mosquitoes came out to greet me at the waterfall. It is supposed to be 100 degrees back in Sacramento today. Crikey. I was glad to be in the mountains, but the mosquitoes like it too. I juiced myself up and they left me alone after that. After taking a photo of the falls, I continued on up the trail and back to my car. I definitely want to return here and see these three waterfalls when they are flowing well. Next year, perhaps.