Leon Turnbull Photography

It is summer. Hot, muggy, mosquitoes, and now smoke from fires. It must be California.

It also means it is time for my annual trip to Horsetail Falls. Horsetail is the only waterfall around here that flows well late in the summer. There are not many mosquitoes here either. And it was warm but not overly hot up in the mountains. That just leaves the smoke, but surprisingly, when I arrived at the trail head it was not that smoky at all. There was a bit of haze but not too bad at all.

It was Friday. I left after work. The traffic was horrendous. There was a truck along the highway that was completely incinerated. Traffic was backed up for miles. Fortunately, the firefighters got the fire out. This is somewhat similar to how the Carr fire got started. I almost turned back because of the traffic but I continued on.

So I arrived at the trail head later than I hoped, but I did not rush on the hike because I was taking a video along the way. There was no one on the trail, which is the nice thing about coming on Friday evening. I got up to the bottom of the lower Falls at about 6:45. The waterfall was flowing quite a bit better than I expected it to be. I took some quick photos and decided how I would accomplish my next feat.

I have been up to the top of Horsetail Falls a number of times of course, but the last two or three times I have had to turn back. There is one very steep and slick section just above the lower waterfall. It is freaky. I think that in my old age it has just psyched me out too much. All you young bucks have no trouble I’m sure. Anyhow, this time around I managed to squeeze and squeeze and wedge myself up through a crack to get on top of the ledge above the slick granite. I made it! I was in shock because I was not expecting to make it up. I wondered what I should do next. This was a big major mental obstacle for me to overcome. Now I am confident I can do the same thing again in the future. I was feeling ecstatic.

The thing I wanted to do next is get over to the bottom of the upper tier of Horsetail Falls. I have never been to the spot before and have wanted to do it for quite a while. Once above that slick ledge, it was pretty easy-going. There were a few big rocks to walk over and some brush to go through but I made it over to the base of the huge cascade. So Awesome!

It was now very late in the day. I had very little time to take photos and video and get back down the mountain, and I did not want to go back down that ledge in the dark. Thus I did not spend much time here at the upper tier, not nearly as much as I wanted to, but I took my photos and left. Going down that ledge is much easier than going up.

It was after sunset when I got to the bottom of the lower Falls. I still had to hike down to the trail head which is another 45 minutes. The entire hike was in the dark. But I did not mind, I had my headlamp, and it was an awesome experience at the Falls today.

Even with my headlamp, it was very difficult to make out the trail because there were particles in the air making it hard to see. I don’t know if it was just dust, or smoke particles. I think it was the latter, but as I said the smoke was not bad at all. Thus it was not surprising when I tripped over a root (or ruut as Americans “think” that Canadians say) and landed in the dirt. No harm done, just a dirty leg. All in all, totally worth it for this short hike to Horsetail Falls in the Desolation Wilderness.