Leon Turnbull Photography

On Saturday I took off up north to Oroville’s Table Mountain area for a good ‘ole waterfall hike. I took my dog, Kaya, as well. She loves a good ‘ole waterfall hike.

I had envisioned a beautiful sunrise shot from the overlook at Phantom Falls. I had mentioned this cryptically a couple weeks ago, but I hurt my back that weekend, so my plan to go here fell through. My back is better now, so I thought to try again. This time, though, the weather did not co-operate. I arrived in Oroville to overcast skies. It was dark, though, so I couldn’t really tell if I might get a decent sunrise or not from Phantom Falls. It is a 1.5 mile hike to the waterfall, so I needed to start hiking in the dark to get there in time for sunrise. So off I went …

And immediately got bogged down in a big swamp. There is no trail on Table Mountain, you just need to work your way cross country in the general direction you want to go. With all the rain recently, there is a lot of standing water on the mountain top, and since it was still dark and I couldn’t really see much, I walked right through it. Uck! Now my boots are soaked and I just started the hike. I found my way through the swamp, and fortunately, found dry land for the rest of the hike.

Table Mountain is a wonderful place to visit if you like wildflowers. There is an amazing display here in the spring, and this year, it is going to be spectacular because of the good winter rains we have had. Already, the flowers are starting to pop up. They are all over the mountain, and since there is no official trail, it is rather difficult to hike here without stepping on the flowers. It is hard enough to avoid them in the daylight, but in the dark it is extra difficult. Well, it did start getting light out fairly quickly, so I was able to see where I was going … eventually …

And that’s when I came upon the crazy cows. The cows are also all over the mountain, and most likely, in your direct path to where you want to go. I don’t know why, but they make me rather nervous. I put Kaya on the leash so she wouldn’t go chasing after them (or vice-versa). I made a direction to head around the cows, giving them as much space as possible, and not get too close to them. They watched me closely. When I got by them, they started trotting after me! I think they were preparing to attack. Now I was the one watching them closely. But I guess they figured human meat (or dog meat, I’m not sure which) wasn’t so tasty after all, so they stopped following me, and went back to eating their grass.

I arrived at the Phantom Falls overlook shortly after sunrise. There was no pretty sunrise, just overcastness. That was okay, because it meant that I would be able to see plenty of other waterfalls here as well. There are a lot of waterfalls on Table Mountain, and I managed to see five of them on this day, but there are others as well, and I will definitely need to come back here someday soon and get out to them.

Phantom Falls was flowing quite nicely, though I thought there might be more water flowing in the creek than there was. The overlook at Phantom Falls is definitely a spectacular one. It is also an incredibly steep drop-off. Now Kaya was making me nervous, wandering around close to the cliff. She is a very sure-footed dog, but she did once almost go over the brink of a waterfall when I wasn’t watching her. I told her to lie down near my bag while I took my photos, which she did very patiently. She is such a good dog.

Once done with Phantom Falls, I made my way around to some of the other waterfalls in the area, and I will post some of those pictures later. Afterwards, we made our way into Oroville for lunch, and I bought Kaya a hamburger to reward her for the good hike she did. She deserved it. And of course, she really enjoyed eating a bit of “cow”. 🙂