Leon Turnbull Photography

We have not had much rain here in northern CA lately. January and the first part of February was quite dry. This was not good news as we really need more rain this winter, and it meant the waterfalls had pretty much dried out. But last week we got a big dump, and that got the waterfalls flowing again (for now). After the big storm I decided to head back up to Oroville and Table Mountain. There are still a few waterfalls up there that I have not been to believe it or not, and I wanted to get some of them off the bucket list. I only had a few hours, so I chose three to visit: Coon, Ranch, and Crevice Falls; all of them are fairly close together and can be reached on an easy 5 mile round trip jaunt across Table Mountain.

I arrived at the trailhead (though there is of course no trail), and it was still dark, so I got out my head lamp and headed across the field, watching out of course for the many cow pies along the way. In addition to the cow pies, I had to watch out for the many puddles as well from the recent rain. I was trying to look down at my feet for the cow pies, and at the same time look up for the upcoming puddles. It was Saturday morning, and the rain was “just” beginning to stop, in fact, it was still lightly raining when I headed out. After scaring away some cows (I am sure they don’t see too many people walking out in the night with headlamps on them), I arrived at Coon Falls. It was still well before sunrise. Rather than wait for the light, I decided to head on to Ranch and Crevice and come back to this one. Coon was flowing fairly decent (it does not have very much drainage), so that was a good sign. When I got to the creek crossing for Ranch Falls, I had trouble crossing it. There was a lot of water flowing in that creek. I continued on to Crevice Falls and shortly reached the viewpoint. It is an interesting viewpoint to reach. I had been here last year with my friend Rob when Crevice Falls was dry. We found a somewhat scary viewpoint where you need to cross over a bit of a “crevice” (not the “crevice” that the waterfall is on), and you are somewhat unsure if the ground is going to be steady because there is a humongous dropoff just to the left of this “crevice”. But in fact the footing is secure, and after crossing it, you walk out on this ledge with incredible dropoffs to either side of you. At the end of it, just stand in amazement.

I was amazed for sure. Crevice Falls drops through a huge crack in the cliffs of Table Mountain, mostly hidden from view. You cannot see the entire waterfall, only the top part of it and some of the bottom. I looked around for other viewpoints of this waterfall, but this was the only good view of it. I should say, actually, that there was another ledge that could have provided a better view. But to get onto it, I would have had to JUMP across a gap onto a very narrow rock ledge, and across a 150 foot drop to the bottom of the canyon. Umm, no thank you.

What really amazed me here though is finding a second waterfall beside Crevice Falls. Indeed, it is more spectacular than Crevice Falls itself, plunging 129 ft. off the cliff. I had no idea this second waterfall even existed. It was a pleasant surprise to say the least. I am quite sure it only flows at all after periods of high rain, so you really need to be here to see it immediately after a good rainfall. And I highly recommend doing so. It is a very magnificent place.

http://www.waterfallswest.com/waterfall.php?id=953