Leon Turnbull Photography

It has been a long time since I have been waterfallin in the Bay Area. Why? Well the drought of course, that is the reason. It’s a long drive to see dry waterfalls and for the last four years that is pretty much what they have been. Well I figured it was time to return and go to the ocean as well. What better day to do it then my birthday? My wife now hates me for going to the ocean without her. I did invite her to come along though.

She didn’t want to get up at the crazy hour that I left. Yet even though I left so early, traffic was absolutely awful. It was 5:30 AM and the road was all backed up when I got over there. What the hey? Who goes to work at 5:30am? This essentially put me 30 minutes late when I arrived at the trailhead, and timing would be critical for low tide.

I hiked up to the first waterfall. It was flowing very subpar, and I was quite disappointed. These waterfalls by all accounts should have been a lot better. The second waterfall that I wanted to see was not even possible. The waves were already crashing against the cliffs. It was already past the low tide point, it would’ve been incredibly risky for me to continue. I decided to turn around and go to the third waterfall Arroyo Hondo Falls (pictured here). This is a smaller one but rather interesting. I did find it very difficult to photograph, as I could not find any good angle. I wish I had a 10 foot ladder to stand up on to take a photo of this one, but no ladder was handy and there was nothing else I could elevate myself on. There is a strange looking shack right beside this waterfall on the beach, and tied down to the side of the cliff. Why is it here? There were all sorts of signs and bottles and other knickknacks inside it. Very weird and very interesting. Also very upsetting that there was a ton of garbage all along the beach washed up by the tide mostly, and far too much to even consider picking up. Is that just the way things are now on the beaches of California? It really perturbs me, and in fact it was rather disgusting and kinda ruined the hike.

Well anyhow, despite the garbage, it was a good birthday morning so far but it was time to get back to the car and drive to my second hike. Stay tuned.