Leon Turnbull Photography

I returned again to Dutch Creek in Coloma and this time I came away with what I was looking for.

The forecast was for a steady rain all day long. I was prepared to get wet. But it is difficult to take photos when it is raining hard (not to mention that I would be totally soaked after 5 minutes of hiking). But I woke up to a very light rain in Folsom. Okay I thought, I can deal with this. This is nothing. Almost perfect hiking weather. Off I went to Coloma. Of course, by the time I got to Placerville that light rain turned into a hard rain. Oh I thought, maybe I can’t deal with this after all. Nonetheless, I continued on to Coloma, and by the time I got there, it was back to a nice light rain again. Sweet. The entire hike up to the waterfalls was perfect, just a light rain, and a very lovely hike.

Except that the trail had turned into an obstacle course. There were a large number of downed trees across the trail from the recent storms we had in January. The last time I was here (which was this year, before the storms) the trees were not down. Interestingly enough, there were well worn paths around the downed trees. That meant that a number of people had been up here in the last month. I was a bit surprised about that, because I didn’t think this was such a popular trail (I’ve certainly never seen anyone else hiking on this trail). Dutch Creek was flowing along nicely, not too crazy, but a definite good flow to it.

Now of course once I arrived at the waterfalls, the nice light rain had turned into a hard rain again. Doh! I scrambled up to the top of the waterfall on Johntown Creek in the now hard rain. It is a difficult scramble up to the top. It is also a dangerous spot right where the two creeks (Johntown and Dutch) come together forming two beautiful waterfalls side by side. I was a bit worried about that spot, as the rain makes the rocks and dirt very slippery, and a fall there would not be a good thing. But I found a way around that spot, an easy and safe path leading up to the top (though steep of course). Once at the top, I continued up to Upper Johntown Creek Falls, which was my primary goal for the day. First though, I continued hiking on the trail past the upper falls. I was curious how far the trail went, and if there might be additional waterfalls along the creek. I did not find any more waterfalls, just one small cascade, but the trail continued for quite a distance, and I followed it until the creek leveled out in a little clearing, then turned back.

Upper Johntown Creek Falls is 60 ft. high. The last time I was here, the creek was in flood and it was roaring. I could not get a good photo of the falls at that time because I could not get close enough to the waterfall due to the raging creek. That was also the time I almost lost my wallet, due to a broken zipper on my backpack. This time, I had a new backpack, firmly zipped up, and the creek was not in flood. Still though, in order to get close enough to the waterfall to photograph it, I had to cross the creek twice. And that required getting wet (actually, I was already quite wet due to the rain). I had anticipated this though, and I had brought my water shoes. So I put them on, and was able to cross the creek without too much difficulty. On the other side, I had to scramble a bit upstream, then cross back again, in order to get in this position right in front of the waterfall. It is a tough beast to photograph, as the creek makes a right hand turn halfway down the falls, in a steep narrow canyon. Thankfully, by the time I got ready to photograph the falls, the rain had subsided. Indeed, it had stopped. It was supposed to rain all day long, and now the rain had completely stopped. I was able to go back and photograph the other waterfalls, and had no more rain for the rest of the day – that was a very pleasant blessing.