Leon Turnbull Photography

This weekend would be more of a scouting trip than anything else. It is almost mid November and it still has not rained. No rain in the long range forecast. I am depressed. However, I still wanted to go on a hike and find a new waterfall. I was pretty sure this particular waterfall would not be dry, and I hoped it would have decent flow. But would it?

It is a very long drive, I would not want to come out here to see a dry waterfall. The last 3 miles are extremely rough, and I decided to drive them instead of walk. My car did not appreciate it, but my body did when I got back to the car. I would not have to walk an additional 3 miles in the pitch blackness. At least I made sure to put batteries in my head lamp this time.

It is a pretty easy hike to the waterfall, all downhill for 3 miles, and all of it is on a dirt road except for the last part. Coming back up afterwards is a different story, but it is only 1000 feet gain, so it is not really too difficult.

I came to the first crossing of the river, one branch of it. It was completely dry. This is not a good sign. It is obvious that in the spring this branch has tremendous flow, the road is even washed out here from a flood. Perhaps it is from the flood of 2017, or perhaps some other time, I do not know. What I do know is that coming out all this way to see a dry waterfall would make me a very unhappy camper, but this is the smaller branch of the two, so maybe the other one was not dry. This is a river after all, not a creek. I would not expect it to be dry, however it is pretty close to the source so who knows.

As I approached the top of the waterfall, I could hear water. It was not dry! I crossed the river at the top of the falls and made my way down to the bottom on the other side. There was a lot of ice in the river even though it was a very warm day. I thought this was a bit odd.

I was not expecting much, but I had hoped the flow would be a bit better. Nonetheless, it was still very pretty. One very pleasant surprise: the waterfall was much bigger than I expected. When I found this on Google Earth, I estimated it was only about 40 feet high. It is not 40 feet high. It is a towering 69 feet high! In the spring this will be absolutely spectacular. I will definitely come back. It was a very successful scouting trip in Tahoe National Forest.