Leon Turnbull Photography

“And the sixth is where the emerald fairies play in the summer.” (from Ode to NFAR – by Leon Turnbull)

It was very cold during the night; it was not freezing but I’m sure it was much less than 40 degrees. I had to wear all the clothes I had brought, and I did not sleep very well. I did survive the night, however. The outside of my sleeping bag was wet in the morning, not a good thing, but at least it was not wet on the inside. That would have been horrible.

I was also hacking like a mad man all night long (pun intended). I had a cold, which started before I left on this trip. I was determined not to abandon my big backpacking trip just because of a little thing such as sickness. I already missed a couple weeks of hiking this year due to sickness. Now I was sick again just before my trip! Thank you to my dear son and daughter for giving me another cold! It has actually been a very rough spring in the Turnbull household. It seems that we have been constantly sick this year. Anyway, the good news is that the bears and mountain lions would not want to come anywhere near me for fear of catching my cold. I’m kidding. Sort of. I’m sure they would have run far away from my tent if they heard me hacking in the night.

I got up early. My plan was to explore further up Palisade Creek. There are three new waterfalls up there I wanted to try to reach. I was not very successful. The first one at least I could get a view of. It was about 30 ft. high. However, I could only see it from the top of a cliff. There was no way down to the bottom of it from the cliff, and approaching the falls from along the creek was far too brushy. The other two falls were completely inaccessible. I got a glimpse of them from a long way off, but the terrain was far too steep and cliffy to get any closer.

Bummed, I returned to camp, had coffee and breakfast, then packed up my gear. From here, it is a short hike down to the river. All easy, all downhill. I left my snowshoes beside the trail before the big downhill section started. I would certainly not need them 1000 ft. lower at the river. Hopefully, the bears would not steal them. No humans would be down here, that is for certain.

The views on this trail are amazing. In the distance I could see majestic Snow Mountain, still a lot of snow on it, and East Snow Mountain Falls dropping off it. This is the second highest waterfall in California, at 2200 ft. high, second only to Yosemite Falls. I measured this waterfall myself when I was down here in 2006 with my brother-in-law.

Down at the North Fork American River, Palisade Falls was roaring (pictured here). In 2006, the flow downstream at the North Fork Dam was about 600 cfs. This weekend it was about 1400 cfs, more than twice the volume. It was amazing. I have wanted to see these waterfalls at high flow for a long time, and now I have. The North Fork American River canyon is just so incredibly beautiful.

I went down to the same campsite where my brother-in-law and I camped before. I found the place much changed, and not for the better. I was visibly upset. There was a lot of garbage down here, left by previous campers. There was a big old blue tarp, and a large heavy grill left on the fire pit, not to mention a number of smaller things. This is what you call “leave no trace”??? If you can carry a big blue tarp and heavy grill down to the river, then you sure better be able to carry it back up. This is appalling in my opinion. Even creating large fire pits where there was previously nothing is completely irresponsible (and I saw quite a few big fire pits down here – all over the area – including a ginormous one). Palisade Falls used to be a very remote place, accessible to only a few hardy souls. Lately, however, it has become much more popular with certain groups, and I wonder that it is these groups that have contributed to trashing this beautiful area. I picked up some of the garbage and put it in my pack to carry up later. I did not pick up the tarp or grill, but even so, picking up this garbage would make my pack uncomfortably heavy for the long hike out of the canyon. Oh well, I guess I should have expected it.

I setup camp, ate lunch, and relaxed. I had wanted to try going down river to Petroglyph Falls again, but I did not have enough time. I was a bit sad about that, and I wish I could have stayed a third night down here, but it was not in the cards. I did walk down the river for a bit, and I found it very slow going, mostly due to the high flow and melting snow into the river along very slippery banks. I did not get very far. So anyhow, back to camp. I took photos of Lower Palisade Creek Falls and Palisade Falls in the evening, many photos from different angles were taken. The high flow limits the photographic possibilities for sure. You want to get right down to the river level? Not a chance of that happening. At first I had thought that the emerald fairies only play here in the summer (and if you have ever been here in the summer, it is easy to see them). But I was wrong. The emerald fairies play here in the spring as well. You can see them in my photo. Can you not?