Leon Turnbull Photography

In the past week, there was one more foot of new snow fallen. It was the last storm of the winter (although it is not winter anymore). I had hoped it would have all melted by the weekend, but not so. Since it was fresh, it was not packed, and the snow was soft and not good to walk on without snow shoes. I knew I would need my snow shoes on this backpacking trip, and therefore I did pack them. Since the first part of the hike is road walking, I carried them. This added 3.5 pounds of weight to my pack. Not a fun thing, but it was easier walking on the road in hiking boots than snow shoes. At least it was downhill.

Once I got off the road, I put the snowshoes on since the snow was softer and I was sinking in. I hoped I could ditch them long before I got down to the river, thinking that I would be leaving the snow far behind, as it is a 1500 ft. descent. However, there was much more snow than expected, and it continued ALL THE WAY down to river level. When I got to the top of a certain gully (I could not wear them going down the gully), I almost left them there. Surely there would not be any snow at the bottom of the gully, but reluctantly I decided to carry them down, and it’s a good thing. There was a lot of snow at the bottom of the gully, and it was much deeper than at the top. Snow shoes were an absolute necessity.

There was one big creek crossing, but it was not horribly big and I was not expecting it to be uncross-able. I put on my water shoes and it was definitely flowing swift and very cold, but not dangerous at all. Coming back in a couple days could be a different story. It was supposed to warm up quickly this weekend, and that meant more snow would be melting into the creek. I was not concerned about it. However…

There was one section of the hike I was concerned about: It was a potentially very dangerous area, with steep drop-offs down into the raging river below. Fortunately, by this point in the hike, all the snow was gone. If there was snow, I would not have been able to continue past this section. With no snow or wet slippery rock, it was pretty easy.

It was a very long and difficult hike, but after 5.5 hours of slow slogging, I finally made it to my camp at Upper Palisade Creek Falls in the early afternoon. This waterfall is hidden off the main trail, but you can practically see it from the main trail (in fact, you can see it from the main trail), and it is very easy to get to. I don’t know why I never noticed it when I was down here before, and I thank my friend Mike for telling me about this one. It is a magnificent waterfall, dropping in two tiers, 80 ft. and 30 ft., and it is a perfect place to camp, right beside the falls. I had a terrific evening enjoying the waterfall and photographing it. However, it would be a very cold night…