THE BAY BLUES
Whenever I go over to the Bay Area, I am always disappointed by the flow in the creeks. Not always, but probably over 90% of the time I go there. I thought for sure today would be different. It was less than 48 hours since the major storm, the biggest storm of the year so far. Surely the creeks would still be in flood, definitely they would all have very high flows. Indeed, I was thinking I would not be able to cross some of them.
This is why I chose to go first back to Pacheco Creek Falls, which I have been to before. I figured the Little Pacheco Falls would be flowing, and I have not been to that one (when it was flowing). Now would be a great day to do it. Well, I arrived at the trailhead at sunrise, thinking that I would need to wear my water shoes for the hike, since you need to cross the creek a number of times. However, the creek was not in flood. The creek was not high. The creek was actually very low. In fact, the creek was lower today then when I was here the first time. How disappointing! What happened to all that rain that came down??? It would be an easy rock hop across at all points, so I put on my hiking boots instead and headed up the trail.
The Little Pacheco Creek was basically a trickle (again). I did go up to this falls (again), and this time I did take a photo, but I was really bummed. I really wanted to see that one flowing well.
I headed up the creek to the main Pacheco Creek Falls, crossing a number of times (easily). I came to the lower falls and took photos of it, then you need to climb up the cliffs to see the upper falls (pictured here). I was worried about this section. There are huge dropoffs as you climb up the trail, and with the ground still wet (from the rain that came?), it was very unstable. I was right to be worried, because the main section of trail was too dangerous to traverse. Thankfully, I was able to climb up and around it, and then able to get up to the waterfall. I compared my photo from last time I was here, and I think there was more water the first time. They got over 4 inches of rain here this past week. Darn it all.
I had planned to spend the entire day in the Bay area, and see about 8 or so waterfalls. However, because the flow was not high, and because it took a lot longer to do some of the hikes than I anticipated, I cut my day short. I did see 5 waterfalls, however, including 4 new ones (including Little Pacheco), so stick around and you will see some more photos coming very soon.