Leon Turnbull Photography

I have been to Crystal Basin Falls before but I always wanted to return at peak flow in spring and camp here as well. I envisioned it being very spectacular in spring. I put it on my list to do this year.

The timing for my vision was critical and after checking the snow maps and satellite images I thought this weekend might be one or two weeks too early. However, the next couple weeks would not be possible for me so I decided to go now. There would likely still be a lot of snow here but it still should be good.

The road to Wrights Lake on Highway 50 was still closed and gated (at least, that is what the website indicated) so my idea was to go from Ice House Reservoir. It is 10 miles to Wrights Lake from there and there would be snow but I figured I would drive as far as possible and hike the rest of the way. I hoped to drive at least 3 miles on the road. I drove 5 miles before I hit the first snow bump on the road and decided to park here. I think I could have driven a little further but I wanted to get in a decent hike. It would be 5 miles on the road plus 3 miles on the trail to Crystal Basin Falls. It would be a fairly easy hike which I certainly needed after the huge one I did in Yosemite last week.

Wrights Lake was closed in the summer for the Caldor Fire which raged through here. You might expect the entire lake to be burned but in fact there was no burn through this area at all. It was as beautiful as always. That is a good thing for sure. I did see badly burned areas along the American River canyon (highway 50) but nothing in Ice House or Wrights Lake area.

I reached the trailhead for the Rockbound Trail. This is where I expected things to get very difficult with the trail being very snowy and very muddy. Instead I found the trail to be almost all clear and very easy. This was shocking. The snow must have all melted off in just one week. Now I am thinking I was not 1 or 2 weeks too early but perhaps 1 week too late.

I arrived easily at Crystal Basin Falls at about 12:30PM. The waterfall was nice for sure but definitely not what I had envisioned. Even if I had been 1 week earlier I don’t think it would have made much difference. I now think I probably need to come back during an above average year at peak flow. Anyhow I setup my tent right next to the waterfall and relaxed for the rest of the afternoon. It was an incredibly beautiful spot.

In the evening I decided to hike up to Twin Lakes. Normally I would hike on the south side of the creek but the creek was too high to cross without getting very wet and there was quite a bit of snow on that side so I tried the north side of the creek instead. It was a little difficult getting up above the waterfall but once I was able to do that it was mostly easy going up to Twin Lakes. However, the closer I got to Twin Lakes the more snow there was to traverse. It was soft but I was not postholing. Twin Lakes was very gorgeous and still iced over. The waterfall was flowing but not as well as I had seen it before. I did not stay for sunset to take photos. If I had stayed then I would be hiking back down in the dark back to camp and I did not want to do that. I already have good photos of those waterfalls. I would much rather go back down and take photos of the lower falls in the evening. That is what I did.

Part 2 is on the way …