EVERYWHERE A CLIFF
I was surprised there was no snow (or not much) at the trailhead at 5500 ft. elevation. I did not think I’d be able to drive up there, but when I looked at the satellite, I did not see much snow. Maybe this hike to Spruce Creek Falls would be a good one to do right now.
There was maybe just a couple inches of snow so it was easy to drive to the trailhead. It was icy, however. I had fun sliding along the ice as I hiked down the road. Coming back up later would be a bit more difficult. The road crosses Spruce Creek a few minutes into the hike. It was just barely flowing. I really considered just turning back now. But I drove all the way up here. I figured I should at least do a hike down to where I need to get off the road and scramble down to the falls (3 miles of road walking). If the creek is just a trickle down there, then I would not do the off trail (very difficult) part of the hike.
It is about a 1400 ft. descent down to the falls (900 on the road). When I got down to the end of the road, I could hear the creek flowing much better (I could not see it from the road). Ok then, maybe I will continue as planned. I have tried this hike once before, but I found it too steep and cliffy. I returned this time with rope and with a better planned route. (so I thought). The cliffs get really crazy near the top of the waterfall. Cliff cliff, everywhere a cliff. There is no way down. But there is! I found a path leading down to the bottom of the lower tier of the falls. The last section was very steep and indeed I needed to use my rope for safety. I made it down successfully.
This lower tier of Spruce Creek Falls is 39 ft. high. It is quite nice, and you can see the upper tier in my photo. It is much bigger. Unfortunately, I could not find a way up to it. It is extremely sketchy and I did not have any more rope. I was also out of time. I will return in the spring with more rope and more time and more determination.
It was dark when I got back to my car at 5:30PM. It was a cliffy day in Tahoe National Forest.