Leon Turnbull Photography

I do not usually cross into Nevada to search for waterfalls, but when I do, I find one. Kidding. But seriously, if there are two waterfalls that I want to see that are the same distance from my home, one in CA and one in NV, I will choose to go to the CA waterfall. Why so, captain? Well it is because I want to be considered the guru of California waterfalls (or whatever you want to call me – pick a name – it doesn’t have to be a nice one), and there are just so many waterfalls still left to see in California, so I concentrate on going to see the CA waterfalls as much as I can, in order to continue to build up my bagged list in CA. But every so often, I feel like venturing into Nevada, and thus was the case this weekend.

Waterfall season is done in California (and Nevada), but I thought perhaps this one in the Mt Rose Wilderness might still be suitable, since it is a high elevation waterfall. Not great, but at least decent. So after work on Friday, I took my son Jadon and drove up the hill, eventually crossing into that other state.

I thought this was a very easy hike. It is only 2.5 miles with minimal elevation gain. Jadon did not feel the same way. He said it was a “moderate” hike. My family knows by now to always up the difficulty level from what I say it is, by one more level. They are not stupid. Easy is really moderate. Moderate is really strenuous. Strenuous is really just kill me now. I’m not sure, though, why Jadon thought this hike was “moderate”. Perhaps it was the high elevation. Pretty much the entire hike is above 9000 ft., so that could be a factor, but since it is mostly flat-ish, I did not think it to be an issue at all. Perhaps it was just his lazy, teenage mindset. That’s more likely. Anyhow, it was a good hike to the falls. It was definitely flowing “decent”, though I was hoping for a bit more water.

My tripod head broke again, making it very difficult to take photos. I had said I fixed it, and that I was the man, and avoiding having to purchase a new $200 head. Well, I guess I am not the man any longer. I could not fix it again. The screws were still tight, and I could not tighten them any more, but it is still broken. So I am definitely going to need to buy a new one now. Bummer. I tried to take photos as best as I could.

On the way down, we ran into not one but two large groups going up the mountain (to the top of Mt Rose). It was already almost sunset. It would be dark long before they got to the top. Usually I am always the last one off the mountain, but not today. At first I thought it was just a bunch of unprepared kids going up to have a party or something and not thinking about how they would come back down in the dark, but then a couple adults came trailing along behind them. They said they were going to the top to see the full moon rise, and hike down in the dark. Ok then, well that sounds like a very cool thing to do, however I’m pretty sure they did not make it to the top in time to see the moonrise. I would definitely like to go to the top sometime to be there at sunrise or sunset. That would be awesome, but not today. I was hoping to get a nice sunset view of Lake Tahoe from up on the ridge, but we could not even see the lake! It was so hazy in the valley from the fires in California, that you could not see anything down in the valley. There was a bit of nice color, and I did take a couple shots, but I don’t think I got anything very interesting. We arrived back at the car just after dark and made the long drive home. We had a good hike in the other state.