Leon Turnbull Photography

When life gives you liver, just take the onions instead. The philosophy of a madman. Ha ha.

I was not planning to go this waterfall at all. It was not even on the radar for this weekend but it turned out to be a pretty decent consolation prize.

I was planning to backpack down to the bottom of a certain secret canyon to see a certain secret waterfall. It was going to be awesome. The hike was about 9 miles one way. It was going pretty well. I had to make a couple detours and a couple off road bushwhacks but I made it to the top of the ridge. Now I just had to get down to the bottom. I had a good route mapped out. I was pretty sure I could do it but it is a 1200 ft. descent. It was killer tough. Very steep with lots of deadfall and bushwhacking. I made it down 1100 ft. I was cliffed out. You have got to be kidding me. There was no possible way to continue the rest of the way to the bottom. No possible route around the cliff. I was done. Oh man. I was bummed. I was beat tired. Now I had to bushwhack back up the 1100 ft. to the top and carrying my heavy backpack as well.

It took a long time to climb out. About 1 and a half hours. I was going very slowly. I bonked. Eventually I made it back to the top of the ridge. I certainly did not have energy to hike the 9 miles back to my car and go home. I had to find a place to camp. Near some water (which is quite lacking at the top of this ridge). A thought occurred to me. When I went to Onion Creek Falls last year I remembered hiking past a small stream on the way back. That would be a good place to camp for the night. It would be on the roadside (again) – another lovely camping location – not, but it was not far from where I currently was and there would definitely be water. In addition to this I could go to Upper Onion Creek Falls in the morning before I hiked back to my car. I had not been to this one before so it would be a good consolation prize.

The roadside camp was a little better than Breakneck Creek. At least this time I had a view overlooking the canyon. I setup camp, made my dinner, watched a movie, and went to bed.

The hike to Upper Onion Creek Falls in the morning was supposed to be very easy. So I thought. It would be an easy road walk to the top of the falls then a fairly easy descent down to the creek. Umm, not even close madman! I should know better by now, you would think. Firstly, there was no road. I had to traverse the mountain along a steep ridge through much brush. This is not what I wanted to do this morning at all. I was still tired from the day before. Secondly, when I finally made it to the falls I found not an easy descent down to the creek but instead an extremely cliffy hillside. There was no possible way to get all the way to the bottom of the waterfall. I very slowly and very carefully worked my way down the cliff. I had to use my rope at the end but I finally got down to a spot where I had a good view of the waterfall. Essentially I was hanging on to the edge of the cliff for dear life while I took my photos. But it worked.

Upper Onion Creek Falls is a fantastic waterfall and it is a lot bigger than I expected. I estimated it to be about 80 ft. high. It is a beauty but the access is crazy to say the least.

I hiked back up the mountain and found an easier way back to my campsite to collect my backpack. It was 9 miles back to my car and it was not easy with over 1000 ft. elevation gain but I made it back to the car by 2:30PM. Along the way I saw my first two bears of the year. They saw me first. I would not have even seen them but I heard a loud scratching sound and when I turned to look to see what the heck it was I saw one of the bears climbing down a tree. The second one was still up in the tree looking at me. They were young ones, perhaps a year old. I tried to get my camera out but he scampered down too quickly and then they were both gone. Ah well, it was a great ending to a very tough backpacking trip in Eldorado National Forest.

As for that secret waterfall? I will definitely be back some day to try again.