Leon Turnbull Photography

Part II of my grand master weekend trip to Yosemite and beyond was to drive down to Shaver Lake and finally get to Stevenson Creek Falls. Bryan Swan and Dean Goss (world-waterfalls.com) have been hounding me for years to go see this one. And for good reason. It is perhaps the last major major waterfall in CA that I had not yet seen. I’ve been wanting to go here for years but it is a very long drive from Sacramento. This year I finally made the effort to see this 950 ft. high monster.

I parked at the trail starting point overnight. I had a bite to eat and went to bed at 8pm. I was so tired, I dropped off almost immediately and slept about ten hours. No one disturbed me. Sometime during the night it started raining. Hard. And kept raining. I was thinking I did not want to hike seven miles in the pouring rain. Did I make this very long drive all for nothing? The only reason I came down here was to see this waterfall. Would I have to go home empty handed?

Around 6:30am the rain stopped and I decided I had better get going if I am going. I did not know if the rain would start up again, so I asked God to keep the rain away at least until I got to the falls. He listened to me (perhaps a little too closely).

I started hiking down the paved road called the Million Dollar Road. It would have been much better to bike this road, as hiking seven miles on pavement is not fun for the feet. Otherwise it was a pretty easy hike. Along the way I saw a couple other waterfalls that I did not know even existed, and the views of the San Joaquin River canyon were stupendous especially the further I hiked along. If I had to guess, I would say the road is called the “Million Dollar” road cuz that is how much it cost to build. In my view, it was an awful expense that should never have happened, there should only be hiking trails through this canyon. But at least S.C. Edison allows the public to hike/bike their expensive paved road, and it leads right by an incredible waterfall.

I could see the spray from the falls from 1.5 miles away. I am not exaggerating (though I could not see the waterfall until I got right up to it). I kinda figured this was a bad omen in terms of being able to photograph this monster, and I was correct.

The road goes right in front of the bottom of the waterfall and there was so much water it was crashing over onto the bridge and road. I could not even walk up to the bridge, I was literally blown back by the spray. Trying to cross the bridge would have been certain death, and unfortunately the best views of the falls were on the other side. I could only see the lower part of the falls from this side, and I got very cold and very wet trying to photograph it. I was bummed but there was nothing to do but hike back.

As soon as I started back the rain started up again. Hard. And hail as well. I was soaked from the spray and now I was getting colder and wetter from the rain. I was a cold wet dog (again) by the time I got back to my car. But on the plus side, God did hold back the rain until I got to the waterfall, just as I asked Him. Next time I think I’ll ask Him to hold the rain until I am done hiking. Haha.

I was very tired on the long drive home despite the ten hours of sleep. It took me two full days to recover from this short trip. I definitely overdid it this weekend, 20+ miles of difficult hiking and a heckuva lot of driving was just way too much. But it was a fun trip for sure.

More info on Stevenson Creek Falls:
http://waterfallswest.com/waterfall.php?id=1348