It was time to return to the Bay Area after the recent rain. It is always a crapshoot with the waterfalls there. Will there be enough water or not? It had not really rained all that much but I thought they should be ok. Famous last words.
It has been 20 years since I have been to this spot. I know my memory is not what it used to be but it seems to me the parking used to be better. Residents have blocked off areas in front of their houses so no one can park there anymore. This is a public park. Why isn’t there any decent parking here? It is very annoying. I arrived at sunrise and I found one and only one place to park along the road. Better than nothing, I suppose.
I hiked up to the lower Cascade Falls first and took photos. After this my goal was to go to the Upper Cascade Falls, which I have not been to before, and a third waterfall as well. I hoped to get to all three of these because frankly, with the horrible parking situation, I never want to return here again. Well, I could have done this, except I went the wrong way to Upper Cascade Falls. Ugh. The way I went was a good path but it was a tough climb and then a tough descent back down to the creek. Some poison oak likely touched along the way as well. I found the waterfall.
Upper Cascade Falls (aka the Inkwell, aka the Plunge), is 20 ft. high exactly (with two tiers). I had to jump across the creek for the best view with both tiers in the photo. I did not plunge into the depths of the water although the creek was flowing pretty good. There was a lot of water flowing in all the creeks and I was a bit surprised (and pleased). I’m not positive (as I said, my memory is failing), but I actually think I have been to the upper falls before but just did not realize it was Upper Cascade Falls. It is not exactly a very striking waterfall.
Since the hike to the upper falls took a lot longer than expected (because I went the wrong way), I did not have time to go to the third waterfall. I had to meet my wife and daughter for lunch. Nekoda is going back to college for her next semester so we were dropping her (and all her stuff) off at her dorm room. I will have to come back here for the other waterfall (and deal with the parking again). It was a beautiful morning in Marin County.
