Leon Turnbull Photography

I woke up at 4:30AM. It was about 35 degrees but I was warm in my sleeping bag. I had my sleeping bag liner, plus 3 tops and 1 pair of long underwear. I packed up camp in the dark, ate some breakfast, and headed up the hill.

To get to these two new waterfalls I had to cross Palisade Creek. This is a very large creek. In the spring, in any normal spring, crossing it would be impossible. This is not a normal spring and I got lucky. Before I started this trip, I had little hope that I would be able to cross it. It is not peak flow yet but it is getting close to peak flow; and as I said I got lucky. Cold weather this week brought the rate of snow melt down to about 600 cfs at the North Fork Dam. Nonetheless, there were some sections of the creek that looked do-able and others that looked completely uncrossable. Fortunately, at the spot where I intended to cross there was a perfect (and very safe) section. I easily crossed the creek. (I could have crossed with NFAR at 900 cfs but probably not more). Now I had to continue up the east side until I reached the upper most waterfall. There was brush, there were snowy sections I had to walk over, there were very tricky steep sections. It was not easy. I saw a lot of bear prints in the snow. Mountain lion also. This is a very remote place. I somehow doubt any human has ever been up this way. Only the wild things go here (and madmen).

Finally, I reached the waterfall: Upper East Palisade Creek Falls. It is about 60 ft. high. Another first discovery by waterfallswest.com. It is not the most impressive waterfall but it is still very pretty (it would be better at high flows, but how would you cross Palisade Creek?). I quickly took my photos then hurried back down. I still had to get to the lower falls (which I did, and also is another first discovery by yours truly).

When I got back to the Palisade trail I was very tired. It was a heckuva lot of work climbing up to these waterfalls but I still had to climb 1400 feet out of the canyon. I took a long rest and then started up the hill at 9AM. I was dog tired and it was very slow going through the soft snow. I got back to the trailhead at about 3PM.

My feet were really hurting when I got home. I have a foot injury this spring. So far it has been manageable, but after this trip it was much worse. I basically could not walk the next day. When my mom reads this (and she will), she will immediately call me and tell me not to hike anymore until it is healed. Perhaps some of you are thinking the same thing. Well, it may come to that but I still have 5 more backpacking trips I really want to do this spring. As I write this, my feet are now all better and I’m raring to go out again. It is a very short season this year and the waterfalls will be all gone by mid June. I have to at least try to plow through this injury. I can heal it during the summer.

My first backpacking trip of the spring was a tremendous success. I was so excited to get to these three new waterfalls (plus two oldies). Mission accomplished in Tahoe National Forest at the North Fork American River.