Leon Turnbull Photography

Seven years. A lot can happen in seven years. For instance, an unused road can become completely overgrown in seven years. For instance, a trail can become almost completely impassable in seven years. It has been seven years since I have been to this waterfall, and honestly, I think the last one to hike this trail was myself (not counting the bears).

It is the weekend of the bomb cyclone in northern California. That is apparently a real thing. All I know is that here in Norcal we are getting a huge storm. We had about two inches of rain on Friday and about 10 more inches are coming on Sunday. Thank the Lord! We need this rain so much. I ventured out on Saturday before the big one struck.

The road to this falls is impassable in the winter and after Sunday it will not be drive-able for certain. I thought that it would still be ok after just a couple inches of rain and it was definitely all right but there were still many puddles I had to drive through, a lot more than expected. Not only that, the road seemed much rougher than it was seven years ago.

The last half mile of the road was completely overgrown with many downed trees. I have actually driven down this road in the past but that is impossible now. The actual trail down to the creek is even worse. Multiple blowdowns across the trail, more than I could possibly count. One section was completely blocked with trees down across the trail on a very steep slope. I had to figure out a way to climb up and around it (which I did, with difficulty). There was a lot of overgrowth on the trail, including poison oak. There was certainly a lot of bear activity but I saw no evidence that any human had been down here since I was last here. And then there are the ticks. It is October. It is not tick season yet but I saw quite a few of them along the trail. I was shocked. I considered turning back on multiple occasions as I trudged down the trail very slowly but I persevered and eventually came down to the creek.

Silver Falls is a gorgeous 41 ft. drop. I took many photos from many different vantage points. Hiking back up the mountain afterwards was not easy, a 1300 ft. climb out of the canyon, but I felt good and it almost seemed easier than going down. It was a very enjoyable hike before the bomb cyclone in Eldorado National Forest.