Leon Turnbull Photography

After work on Friday, I drove to Sonora Pass. The plan was for a quick one night backpacking trip, but it turned into two nights.

At first, my idea was to sleep in the car on Friday night, then get a very early start on Saturday morning, hiking in the dark, in order to get to the first waterfall before the sun on Saturday morning. I did not really like this idea too much. I like sleeping a bit better than hiking in the dark.

I decided to change things up a bit, and hike in part way on Friday night (in the dark). So much for not hiking in the dark. However, this would put me close to the first waterfall, and then I would not have to get up so early the next day. This is what I did.

At the trailhead, I talked to a couple who just came off the trail. They said the mosquitoes were out. I was bummed to hear this. The madman does not like mosquitoes. Nonetheless, I did not encounter a single mosquito on this first day. I’m not sure where they thought they saw any mosquitoes, as they were coming from the exact place where I was going. There were a few around the next day, but mostly they were a non-issue. Even so, I would much prefer ZERO mosquitoes than even ONE or TWO mosquitoes.

I started hiking at 7:15pm. Sunset was 7:30pm. It was dark 15 minutes after that. I had about 3 miles or so to hike, and it was an uneventful hike except for when some birds freaked me out as I walked by them. Also, I saw a nice little snake right on the trail. It was not a rattlesnake, it was a rubber boa snake. I have only seen this type of snake once before, so that was cool. More cool than seeing a rattler.

I arrived at Roosevelt Lake at 8:30pm, 3 miles from the trailhead. I wasn’t sure I wanted to camp here, but there was a nice big spot by the lake, and even though it would be nice to get a little closer to the waterfall, I did not really want to hike anymore in the dark, plus I was not sure there would be any flat spots further up the trail (there was not, as I found out later). I stopped here and set up camp. I was in bed by 9PM. Not a bad evening.

In the morning, I got up early but not too early, and hiked up to the waterfall. It took a lot longer and was a lot harder than I expected.

I crossed the West Walker River by butt scooting across on a log, then followed Falls Creek upstream.  Even though I know we had a fantastic year, I was still surprised at how much flow there was in both the West Walker River and Falls Creek. It is September, after all. I was half expecting Falls Creek to be dry as it is a pretty small drainage, but with this flow, the waterfall should be terrific (if I can get to it). It gets steeper and cliffy-er as you get closer to the falls. I was hoping to get a good view of the waterfall without having to climb half way up the mountain, but unfortunately, you cannot see much of the falls due to a lot of thick brush along the creek. There was also no way to get to the creek through all the brush. The only choice was to keep climbing higher. Going higher meant getting above all the brush, but now I had cliffs to deal with. Getting to the falls seemed impossible, and now it was getting late. The sun should already be hitting the falls. But it wasn’t. I kept climbing, and finally found a good way over to the creek. I was standing on the edge of a cliff, but I could see the biggest drop of the waterfall from here, a marvelous 45 ft. high horsetail fall. The entire waterfall is bigger than this, but you cannot view all the tiers at one time (or really, any of the other tiers at all).

When I go backpacking, I want to pack as light as possible. This means I leave my laser rangefinder and clinometer (for measuring waterfall heights) at home. I meant to take these out of my pack, but I forgot. That was stupid and added an extra 1.1 pounds to my pack. You might think that is not very much, but every single ounce adds up enormously when you are backpacking. Well, at least you now have the exact heights of the waterfalls from this trip. You are welcome.

After this, I went back down the mountain to photograph the Lower Falls, which was still in shade but not for long. Then I hiked back to camp, packed up my gear, and had my breakfast. So far, it was a fantastic morning.