Rainy Day
I think most people (especially photographers) would be sleeping in if they knew it was going to be raining all morning. Not me. I love the rain. That is the best time to go waterfallin. I don’t like photographing in the rain, but I certainly do not mind hiking in the rain. Ideally, the best time to go see waterfalls is immediately after the rain has stopped. The waterfalls will be flowing very well, and of course, everyone else will be sleeping in.
Thus, I woke up early on Saturday morning, and it was raining in Folsom. Off I went to Nevada City in search of some new waterfalls I had heard about. Along the way, I drove through a torrential downpour. It was raining so hard, I had to slow right down, as I could not see much of anything ahead of the car. I arrived in Nevada City, and it was raining lightly. I stopped at a gas station to use the facilities and I checked the handy dandy weather app on my phone. I love this app, it can project where the rain will be heading in the future (although, not always accurately). I could see the torrential heavy rain that I just drove through, and I could see it was heading straight towards Nevada City, and would arrive in about 30 minutes or so. That did not bode well, as I was hoping when I left in the morning that I would get a break in the weather about the time I would be hiking.
Well, I continued on and arrived at the trailhead about 30 minutes later. It was still a light rain. Where was that torrential downpour? I figured that it was either still coming or it had somehow bypassed me. Most likely, it was the former, and I would be arriving at the waterfall right when the downpour started.
When I arrived at the waterfall, not only was there no torrential downpour, but the rain stopped completely! It stopped just long enough for me to enjoy the waterfall and take my photos. Once I was ready to leave, the rain started up again. I continued my hike to the second waterfall destination of the day, and when I got to that waterfall, the rain stopped again! It was just all too perfect, and I never did see that torrential downpour. Definitely a God thing.
Kenebec Creek Falls is the name of this waterfall and it is 52 ft. high. It is a surprisingly remarkable waterfall, and with all the rain it was flowing at very high flow. This creek has a very small drainage, and is dry or just trickling for most of the year. It would not be very interesting to visit when the flow is low, but when it is high, it is definitely a beauty. The waterfall drops right into the South Yuba River (which also was flowing very high), and it is fairly easy to hike to. In addition to this, I found two other significant waterfalls on this same creek, and I will share those pictures later. This one, though, was the nicest of the three.
With my recent back injury, I was not wanting to do a lot of difficult scrambling. This first waterfall, fortunately, was easy to reach. The second one did require a bit of scrambling to get down to. It wasn’t too difficult, but I think I may have overdone it a bit for my back. I survived, however, and made it home still in one piece.
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