Leon Turnbull Photography

(as opposed to Beer and Whiskey)

Here is one more brand new discovery for ya. That’s two in one weekend (I am referring to MLK weekend, and in case you are wondering why this post is a week late, don’t – haha). Not too shabby anyway. This falls is in Whiskeytown National Recreation Area. Surprise. I bet you thought there were no other waterfalls at Whiskeytown, didn’t you? Wait, didn’t I just say that same thing in my last post?

A big huge storm rolled in on Sunday so that day was pretty much shot for hiking. By Monday morning the storm was done and I headed out, up to Whiskeytown for what should have been a fairly short hike. It never works out that way with the waterfall madman. You should know that by now.

The hike started out very pleasant. The weather was about perfect, following on the heels of the latest of the storms, the sun trying to break through the clouds. The trail led across a major stream (which I had to wade across – it was freezing cold but my feet were toasty in my wet socks), then it climbed up and up alongside the stream. The sound of the fast rushing creek was music to my drought stricken ears, and I’m sure that is what put me in such a good mood. Then the trail ended. Well so much for my pleasant hike. The route was very overgrown as I headed down down and down. Eventually the terrain just became too steep to continue, surprisingly too steep. I had to give up on that effort this time, but all was not done for my day just yet.

Remember a few years ago when a ranger “discovered” Whiskeytown Falls? It was a major news item, international news in fact. But why? What is the big deal about finding a new waterfall? How many waterfalls have I discovered in the last few years? Lots! And how many of them made big news? None! And here is a brand-new one in the same park! Will it make international news? Of course not. Well this one is not as spectacular as Whiskeytown Falls of course, but it is a really nice one nonetheless.

And there are other undiscovered waterfalls at Whiskeytown as well, I am sure of that. After my first hike failed, I decided to explore this other Creek, which is actually quite a major Creek, though it is unnamed. There was, unfortunately, quite a lot of poison oak, but I made my way down to the creek, and worked my way up stream. In short order I could see a waterfall. I had to go through a lot of oak, crawl over a huge log, and carefully make my way up along the steep side of the creek bed. I finally arrived at the falls. It is a pretty one, 36 feet high. I guess you could say that it is unfortunate that log is cutting off the top of it, but on the other hand, I think the log gives quite a bit of character to the waterfall (kinda like Lion Slide Falls, for example). So it’s not too bad at all. I would have liked to explore more, but I was poison oaked out, not to mention quite tired.

As I hiked back up the trail, I came across a deer coming down towards me. It saw me clearly, but instead of running away like deer usually do, it kept coming for me, straight for me. It totally freaked me out. What did it think it was doing? I am a human! We kill deer and eat them for breakfast! Well, not me personally. I even backed off a bit, to give it more space to pass me, otherwise it would’ve passed within a couple feet of me. It came to within less than 10 feet of me, then decided to go off the path and up into the woods away from me. Whoa that was crazy. First killer cows, and now killer deer? What is the world coming to?

Meet Double Falls. A brand-new waterfall I just discovered on Table Mountain in Oroville. And you thought there were no other good waterfalls on Table Mountain. This one is a beauty, 47 feet high and it was quite the adventure getting there.

I arrived at the trailhead just as the rain was letting up in the morning. Perfect timing. It should be great hiking weather now that the rain was supposed to be all done for the day. Yeah right.

I hiked first to Phantom Falls again. That waterfall was flowing a bit stronger than the week before. Everything was just a wee bit better this week (just like the Scottish – haha). I took more pictures of Phantom and then made my way across the stream at the top. I had to go even further upstream this time in order to avoid getting wet feet. The cow bones were still there. This time I found the rib cage of said cow, right in the middle of the creek. Freaky.

Hiking across the mountain, I made my way over to the top of Double Falls. I had to find a way to the bottom but of course I went down the wrong way. Being as it is so steep and cliffy here, I thought I should go down where the slope was gentler, and then hike back upstream to the falls. I accidentally scared up a bunch of cows on the way down. They took off like gangbusters down towards the cliff edge and then scrambled up the cliff to the top of the mountain. They thought they were mountain goats! Not kidding.

I made it down to the bottom, but there was no clear path upstream and it was very overgrown. I was hiking through a jungle. At least there was no poison oak (well, I didn’t see any but so then why did I get the itch after this hike??? ugh!!) Despite the crazy jungle, I finally made it upstream to the waterfall. It is a beauty, with two separate streams coming together and dropping off a cliff into a marvelous double waterfall. As soon as I arrived, it started to rain again. I thought the rain was done for the day! It is a difficult waterfall to photograph anyway but even more so in the rain, so I waited a long time for the rain to stop, but it did not want to. I finally gave up, hoping that I got a decent shot in the rain. Besides, I was getting far too wet sitting there.

Clearly people have been down here before, but I believe I am the first to document this waterfall. There was a path and on the way back I followed it up, going a different way back up the mountain. I was a bit concerned, because there was a very steep ravine that I saw on the way down. How would I get past that? It would suck to get halfway up the mountain, and then get blocked out and have to go all the way back down. It looked like that would happen as I approached the ravine, but then I saw the path continued and I was able to get across. It was actually much easier than the way I had gone down. No crazy jungle mass to hack my way through. It was a fantastic rainy day on Table Mountain.

I had not gone on a big hike since I ruined my back before Christmas. Well it was time to get back at it. One 11 and a half mile hike coming up. That would sure be a good test. Well long story short, the test was successful, and my back survived the big hike. The destination was Table Mountain in Oroville.

There was a lot of water on the mountain (or should I say, the table) and the waterfalls were flowing. Most of them were looking good, but not all were flowing greatly, and some were not doing too well at all. More water is still needed. It was supposed to rain in the night, that did not happen. It seemed more rain would be coming during the morning, but hopefully I could get to some waterfalls before I got drenched.

The killer cows seem to be getting bolder. They do not even move now when you approach them. They used to run away but not any longer. They just stand there looking at you. At least they didn’t come after me. Perhaps that will be some horrid event in my future.

Crossing the stream at the top of Phantom Falls, I managed to get across without getting my feet wet. A bit of an adventure, as the flow was strong, and I needed to jump (another good back test). Trepidation ensued, however, when I saw a bunch of cow bones beside the stream that had been thoroughly gnawed on by the local mountain lion. I wonder where the beast is today? The section from Hidden to Flag Falls is particularly frightening as you have to walk through a heavily wooded area, which is perfect for mountain lions to hide. And with my bright green raincoat, the lion would see me coming from a mile away and have plenty of time to find the perfect hiding spot to wait and pounce on me. Alas, I did not see the beast. But did he see me? I wonder.

I went all the way to Flag Falls (pictured here). By the time I got back to Ravine Falls, I was very tired, and my back was starting to complain. I wanted to get down to the bottom, to find a new waterfall. There was a ton of poison oak down there and it was just a small falls and flow was minimal, but then I went over to the base of Ravine Falls and Ravine Twin Falls. Wow it is an amazing spot down there. It feels like another world. You are in a jungle. The falls are loud and intimidating. The basalt cliffs tower above you, and you wonder if any of that rock is going to fall on your head. It did not.

I was very tired and hungry by the time I got to the car. Big bad burger at Jakes. Enough said.

Eight waterfalls in two days, and ten overall on my Christmas holiday (all new waterfalls to me, except for one). Not too bad, me thinks. I was pleased. My belly was full. It was scrumptified. Not all the waterfalls were big ones, but at least half of them were really nice ones, and I think this last one was the most purdy of them all.

The last day was scheduled to be cloudy so we took a big detour through the mountains. That turned out to be a bit hair raising because it was snowing (that part was not scheduled). There was a few inches of new snow on the ground, and the highway had not been plowed. If this was British Columbia, the road would have already been plowed in the night. But this was Oregon. I was not worried about going off the road or anything, but it was just very slow going because it was not plowed. We finally arrived in Prospect in the late morning.

There are four nice waterfalls here, including two utterly spectacular ones. It is a short and pleasant hike through the forest on an icy and snowy path down to Mill Creek and Barr Creek Falls. Barr Creek is the one pictured here and it is a drop dead beautiful drop of 167 ft. (there is also an upper section of this falls that unfortunately cannot be seen very well). Again, I had to keep telling the kids to be careful near the cliff edge. Nekoda managed to clonk her hiking pole down hard onto Jadon’s head while they were standing next to the edge. Oh my gosh. It was an accident of course, but Jadon was in a lot of grief for a few minutes, and I’m just glad he handled it so well and didn’t retaliate. Bye bye Nekoda. That would not have been a happy moment. In truth, the kids get along extremely well together. If it was me and my sister Tania at that age, it really would have been bye bye Tania. I am kidding – I hope, but I did once push my sister off the counter at our house when she was a toddler. But no worries, she still loves me. Ha ha.

It is shocking that I had never been to see White River Falls before. It is only a little bit out of the way on our normal route from California to Canada. It is a magnificent waterfall. You would think I would been here before now. The waterfall madman missing out on such a beauty? I have no excuses. But all is remedied now.

We had a good week in Canada visiting family. The kids got in a couple days of skiing at Red Mountain (the best ski hill in the world – of course I am biased). I rested my back all week and did not ski this year (that would have really killed off my back for sure), so I am pretty much all ready for El Nino now and for more hiking.

Speaking of El Nino, the El Nino storms have finally started in California. We finished December with a slightly above average snow pack (107% in the Central Sierra, and about 100% in the North) and slightly above average rainfall. The media was reporting 136% snow pack thus far; That is quite wrong and I am not sure where they got those figures from (did they just take one reading at one location in all of California? or did they just make it up?). So far in January, we are just seeing very weak storms, and there is nothing much better in the long range forecast; but we continue to pray we will see a lot of rain and snow for the rest of the winter.

Anyway it was a very cold day as we drove down from Canada. We got out of the car at Spokane and I nearly froze to death before I took five steps. I got back in the car and made the kids go in to get my coffee. Just kiddin.

We made good time and arrived at White River Falls State Park in the afternoon. It was a cloudy day (which is good, it was supposed to be sunny). The park was closed, and that meant we had to walk in from the road. I had promised the kids it would only be a half mile hike, but this added another half mile or so. Oops. Did I mention that it was a very cold day? Despite the closure, there were a lot of people there. It is a popular location and I expected some people there, but not quite so many. Well, we made it to the overlook, no one else was there at the moment, so I setup my camera and started taking photos. I was antsy and nervous because the kids were fooling around, playing near the cliff. I kept telling them to stay back from the edge. I suppose they were not really being unsafe, but I was being an over protective father, and Nekoda had already slipped twice on the ice that day (and according to her, broke both her knees). Speaking of being unsafe, I saw one person down below that had climbed up on the ice above the river edge to get up close to the waterfall. If he had slipped on that ice, he would have been in the river. I saw some other people that had climbed down the cliff from the overlook to get closer. That also seemed a bit much on the “too dangerous” side of things. The overlook is safe and it has a better view. Why kill yourself?

White River Falls is a drop dead gorgeous waterfall. Officially, actually two waterfalls. The lower one is called Celestial Falls (31 ft. high), the upper one is called White River Falls (79 ft. high). There is a third smaller waterfall as well, which we also went down to see. I am definitely glad we took the time to come here, even though all our body parts took a couple hours to thaw out once we got back to the car.