Leon Turnbull Photography

 

Waterfalls, waterfalls, so many waterfalls. I found so many waterfalls on this creek, I could not count them all. They were like sand on the seashore. Well ok, not quite. I am not a very good counter. There are, in fact, seven significant waterfalls on this creek (I can count to seven, I think). Do you want to know where they are? Access to all of them is mostly not very difficult. You can see my website for details, it will be updated very soon, and in fact the first page is ready: here  

 

I just want to remind everyone out there that although I love sharing my photos and stories on Facebook, Instagram, and on this blog, the reason I do so is to direct you to my website waterfallswest.com, where you will find tons of information: detailed directions, descriptions, maps, photos, downloadable trail routes to put in your GPS, and much more. “I do all the work so you do not have to”. That should be my new motto. Perhaps someone else has already used that one. If you already are a subscriber to my website, thank you so much, but if not: my website subscription is only $20 per year; that is not very much money if you think about it, it is an awesome deal. It is less than buying a magazine subscription or a book, and I have loads more information on my website than any waterfall book out there. Why would you not want to pay a small fee to obtain this easy information? You could perhaps, if you are diligent, find some of my waterfalls on your own if you know where to look, but you won’t be able to find a very good percentage of them. Remember: “I do all the work so you do not have to”, and I continually add new waterfalls to my site, usually weekly or every other week at least. Like this one here, for example. You won’t find this one in any book or other site. 

 

It is a very long drive out to this location, and I had initially thought there would only be one or two waterfalls on this creek, so my plan was to do a quick hike up this creek, then go to a couple different creeks before heading back home. However, when I arrived and started the hike, I realized there was much more to this creek than I first thought. I quickly made the golden decision: explore this creek as fully as possible, and forget about the other creeks this time around. Even so, I was not able to finish exploring the creek, there is just so much here. I guess I’m just going to have to come back someday. How awful is that going to be! Not!!

 

The creek had good amount of flow in it. Unfortunately, that is a very bad thing because it means the snow is melting. Snow should not be melting in February! Isn’t that a law? Apparently God has not gotten that memo. Although we had a very good December and January this year, February has gotten off to a horrendous start. The snowpack is dropping like a dead bird. We are in the second week now and nothing in the forecast until at least the end of next week. Hopefully, after that, we will see a big positive change. Maybe. Please?

 

When I came up to the first waterfalls on the creek, I was thinking oh gee, I’m so giddy I don’t know what to do with myself. These waterfalls should not be here. I knew, however, that there were (or should be) bigger ones still ahead, so I decided I would keep going and come back to these lower ones later. I was afraid the upper waterfalls might get into the sun earlier than the lower ones, however it turned out to be the other way around. Doh! Another reason to come back again, someday.

 

None of the waterfalls are huge ones, but they are all nice and all > 20 ft high. The biggest one on the creek is this one shown here and it is 50 ft. high, a magnificent 33 ft. plunge, followed by a 17 ft. slide. It is certainly the most impressive of all the falls, though not the prettiest. 

 

I continued climbing up the canyon above this waterfall, thinking I would not find any more falls. Wrong again. The hits just keep on coming. Well not too many more, but one drop dead gorgeous 27 footer and a few smaller ones as well. Finally the creek leveled out. Time to go back down and get those lower falls. The sun was coming out by then, but I took as many photos as I could. The camera got a tough workout today. When I came upon one 20 footer, however, I was a bit shocked and freaked. Someone was living here! Or so it seemed anyway. There was a tent at the base of the falls, and strewn over the area was a multitude of camping items, cookware, toothbrushes(!), a stove, a saw, a swing over the creek, and (maddingly) some kind of zip line across the waterfall. I was not entirely sure there was no one sleeping in the tent, but it soon became apparent the campsite was abandoned. Is this where Bigfoot lives, I wondered? The mystery is finally solved! I suppose whoever it is, Bigfoot or otherwise, he just lives here in the summer, and leaves everything here over the winter. I have to say that is entirely inappropriate. This is public land. You can’t just leave your camping gear at some site, permanently! The zip line thing was the most annoying, however, because it ruined my photo of the waterfall. I would have cut it down, but to do that I would have had to cross the creek and somehow scramble to the top of the waterfall, which would have been entirely too treacherous, and besides I had more waterfalls to see. I have to wonder, though, what Bigfoot is thinking here about all his stuff. If this creek floods over the winter or in the spring (not an unlikely scenario), all his stuff is going to be washed away including his tent. Most of it is right at creek level and definitely not above the flood line. Good luck, Bigfoot.

 

After that adventurous mini stop, I continued downstream and found a tributary waterfall on an unnamed creek, but flowing quite impressively. As I sat beside the creek photographing this waterfall, I saw a river otter swimming down the main creek. He did not see me, but just kept on going by. I was not prepared to take a photo as he went by too quickly, but I wonder if he knew there were big waterfalls downstream. Actually, I am sure he does, and probably has a blast on this awesome little creek every day. Forget kayaking. This river otter has it all! Maybe he lives with Bigfoot up at that campsite.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Big Carson Falls has been a mystery for a long time. Too long. Ever since I first read a vague 1 line passage in Annmarie Brown’s waterfall book, I have wondered about this one and where it could possibly be. Is it on Big Carson Creek? That would be logical. Or is it on some unnamed and mysterious hidden side creek? Of course it would be that, but where? She also mentioned a 14 mile hike to get to it. That sure puts a damper on things. 

Well it took me a while to figure out where It was, but I did do it. I had help from some people, especially friend of waterfallswest Michael who was able to get me precise coordinates and also found a short route to it. Four miles instead of 14 miles. Now that is progress. Nonetheless, I did not get out to it for so long because of the stupid drough. but this year, finally, we have some rain.

It is a tough climb up the mountain, however. Huff and puff 600 feet to the top of a ridge, then down 600 feet to the bottom. Then do it all in reverse. I found the falls, and it is very pretty, 56 feet high in total. Unfortunately the top of it was in the sun when I arrived, so I took my photos as best I could, having to cut out the harsh top. It is now topless.

Back up on the trail, I found a spot in the sun to rest and eat my lunch. While having a peaceful meal and engrossed in finishing calculations of the falls’ height, I got scared up by a mountain biker.  At first I thought it might have been a mountain lion, he was rather loud. He was trying to bike across the creek, which was only about ankle deep, but he didn’t make it across successfully. Insert loud splash here. Then he started walking his bike slowly, very slowly up that 600 foot hill. I was certain that I would easily catch up to him once I have finished my lunch, and I almost did in fact, but just before I caught up to him he got back on his bike and started riding again. He must’ve been embarrassed that he was going to be passed by a hiker. I give him kudos for beating me to the top, I did not think that he would. I did meet him at the top though. The first thing  I saw was his mountain bike laying on the ground but he was nowhere around. Where did he go? Did he throw himself  off the cliff in exasperation? then I saw him resting on a rock nearby. In Agony. Ah well it is all downhill from here.

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I have always wanted to visit Canyon Creek Falls when it is at crazy flow. All guns blazing. Off the charts bonkers. Check one off the bucket list now.

On Friday the big Pineapple Express rolled on through northern California, whetting all our appetites (literally). We received 5.6 inches of rain in the Sierra foothills. Unfortunately, the snow levels were really high this time, so that means the snow was melting on top of the rain. That raises the river levels exponentially. On Friday night, the North Fork American River peaked at a whopping 20,000 cubic feet per second (in other words, a lot) – it was under 1000 before the rain started. When I woke up on Saturday, it was still at 19,000 but dropping fast. I scooted on up the hill as fast as allowed by the law, and arrived at the trailhead by sunrise.

It is a fairly easy hike, but there are some steep parts. With the ground saturated and wet, it was very slippery and muddy. I fell one time, getting my clothes thoroughly mud baked. After that, I was extra careful on the steep parts. I did not want to put my back out again. Also, I did not want to slide right off a cliff. That would not be out of the question, if I was not paying attention. I paid attention.

Arriving at the viewpoint … and WOW. This is the absolute best I have ever seen the Big Waterfall, which is 144 ft. high. The view of the North Fork American River was stunning, the river was roaring below me, unnamed waterfalls cascading down every mountain. It is difficult to know exactly what the river level was at because there is a delay from the time it takes for the water to reach the gauge at the North Fork Dam, but I believe it was in the range 16,000 to 18,000 cfs. Last time I was here, it was around 6000 to 7000 cfs, so that means Canyon Creek had about 2 to 3 times the flow as last time. Absolutely amazing. If you have never been to this viewpoint before, you need to add it onto your list too.

So now … what about the rain and snow situation and El Nino? It is the end of January and we are halfway done with winter. After this latest storm we finished January at 122% of average rainfall. The snowpack is 117%of average for Central Sierra, 120% for the North, and 107% of average for the Southern Sierra. Folsom Lake is at 54% capacity (average for this time of year), Shasta is 52% and Oroville is 43% – and these will rise more this week from the rest of the rain runoff. So that is all good, right? Or is it?

Certainly it is good when compared to the last four years. I’m not going to complain. However, everyone is talking about El Nino this and El Nino that, but what are the facts? The fact is we have only had 1 or 2 El Nino storms all this winter. Almost all the storms we have had have come from the Pacific Northwest. Not that it is a bad thing, but southern California has been very dry thus far and I certainly would have expected (and hoped) that by the end of January this super strong El Nino would have had a much bigger impact than it has, and we would have even more rain than we have had up to now. What about February? That nasty old ridge is building in this week, and the long range forecast is indicating that we are going to have a dry February, at least for the first couple of weeks. So even though we are above average for now, by the middle of February we will probably be back below average. They are already talking about releasing water from Folsom reservoir. That would be a huge mistake if they do that now. Bottom line … we need to keep praying for rain and an end to this ugly drought.

 

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It has been a long time since I have been waterfallin in the Bay Area. Why? Well the drought of course, that is the reason. It’s a long drive to see dry waterfalls and for the last four years that is pretty much what they have been. Well I figured it was time to return and go to the ocean as well. What better day to do it then my birthday? My wife now hates me for going to the ocean without her. I did invite her to come along though.

She didn’t want to get up at the crazy hour that I left. Yet even though I left so early, traffic was absolutely awful. It was 5:30 AM and the road was all backed up when I got over there. What the hey? Who goes to work at 5:30am? This essentially put me 30 minutes late when I arrived at the trailhead, and timing would be critical for low tide.

I hiked up to the first waterfall. It was flowing very subpar, and I was quite disappointed. These waterfalls by all accounts should have been a lot better. The second waterfall that I wanted to see was not even possible. The waves were already crashing against the cliffs. It was already past the low tide point, it would’ve been incredibly risky for me to continue. I decided to turn around and go to the third waterfall Arroyo Hondo Falls (pictured here). This is a smaller one but rather interesting. I did find it very difficult to photograph, as I could not find any good angle. I wish I had a 10 foot ladder to stand up on to take a photo of this one, but no ladder was handy and there was nothing else I could elevate myself on. There is a strange looking shack right beside this waterfall on the beach, and tied down to the side of the cliff. Why is it here? There were all sorts of signs and bottles and other knickknacks inside it. Very weird and very interesting. Also very upsetting that there was a ton of garbage all along the beach washed up by the tide mostly, and far too much to even consider picking up. Is that just the way things are now on the beaches of California? It really perturbs me, and in fact it was rather disgusting and kinda ruined the hike.

Well anyhow, despite the garbage, it was a good birthday morning so far but it was time to get back to the car and drive to my second hike. Stay tuned.

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Here’s another new one I found last weekend, one of two more new waterfalls. I have been busy this year. It is just a small roadside falls. Nothing spectacular. It is 24 ft. high. I think my photo makes it seem prettier than it really is in person. I am not trying to brag or anything – although I am the world’s most awesome waterfall photographer. Kidding!

 

I did not have much time because I had to get to church, but I have been wanting to check out this one particular area after it has rained a lot. Yet even with the rain, and with nearby Rock Creek thundering, I found some creeks that were completely dry, and ones like this had sub-par flow. It was a bit mystifying. See my website if you would like to learn more about these new waterfalls:

http://www.waterfallswest.com/index.php#recent

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