Leon Turnbull Photography

I had a couple different visions for my ultimate return to Rainbow Falls and this was not either of them. My first vision was to snowshoe here in winter. I think this would be quite do-able except for one thing: there is literally nowhere to park overnight in Mammoth Lakes in the winter. I still have not figured out the logistics of how to do this. Let me know if you have an idea. The second vision is to come here in May before the road opens. There are a couple other waterfalls in the area I still need to see. I think this is definitely a possibility and I will likely do it in the next couple years or so.  This brings us to October of 2022. It still has not snowed yet. The road to Devils Postpile Monument is closed early due to construction.  There would be no one down at the waterfall. How about a quick overnight backpacking trip to Rainbow Falls? Heck yeah. Let’s do it!

On a side note regarding future visions: you may like to know that I have already started planning for a huge waterfall trip in 2024 in celebration of our 25th wedding anniversary. Yeah, that’s right: 2024. One and a half years away and I’m planning it now. I’m so excited already. It is going to be absolutely EPIC. I can’t say what it is yet but it rhymes with mice and hand. Oh yeah, and don’t worry. I’m sure I will have some big trips happening in 2023 as well. If we get any snow this winter, that is.

Anyhow, it is not quite on the same scale but I was excited to go backpacking this weekend as well. Rainbow Falls is a pretty waterfall that flows year-round and with nothing much else happening in California I figured this should be a very good trip. Maybe I would see some Fall colors as well.

I arrived at the trailhead about noon. There was one other backpacker starting about 2 minutes before I did but I did not see him on the trail. He was either hiking faster than me or he turned off somewhere, or both. I did not see anyone on the first day except for one group of day hikers. It would be pretty tough to go down to Rainbow Falls as a day hike but it is certainly do-able. It is much better, however, to camp down there. The hike is pretty easy. No off-trail shenanigans. It is all on trail, and such a beautiful trail as well. Gentle terrain. Wide and smooth. Not rocky. It was perhaps the best trail I have hiked in years.

I knew I could not camp at the upper falls (shown here) – at least not anywhere with access to water, so I went down to the lower falls to camp. I thought there would be plenty of spots to setup my tent but there really wasn’t very much. The ground was too soft to put tent stakes in and it was quite windy which was pulling the stakes out of the ground. I piled some big rocks on top of the stakes and hoped my tent would stay in place. If it got too windy, I might be blown all the way to Kansas during the night.

After dinner I went back up to the 101 ft. high Rainbow Falls to take photos. That is when I noticed a sign that said there was toxic algae in the water. Oh bloody great. I already drank the water down at the lower falls! Was there toxic algae down there as well? There weren’t any signs but it is not very far from the upper falls. If there was then I was already dead. But I got my water out of a good flowing part of the river. That should be ok. Right? Well, if you are reading this then I guess you know the answer.

I went down to the bottom and found the waterfall still in the sun so I sat down and waited. There was quite a bit of garbage around. If you are the one who left your dirty diaper down here for me to take back for you then please send me your address so I can mail it to you. I’m sure you did not mean to leave it there. (insert mad face emoji here). As I waited, a chipmunk came by, hoping for a snack. He became disappointed and left. Surprisingly, I had cell service so I texted with my wife while waiting for the sun to go down. I did not have to wait too long. I took my photos then went back to camp and watched a movie before going to bed. In the morning, everything went to berserk …