Leon Turnbull Photography

So … this was a killer tough hike … but very awesome.

Going back into that nefarious canyon (you know the one – see my previous post Thorn In My Side) before it is closed off for winter, I have wanted to try to get down to this spot for awhile now, but I knew it would be tough. I had to give it a shot.

The descent is about 1200 ft. in less than a mile. If that doesn’t give you the willies, I don’t know what will. Oh perhaps the cliffs will. Yeah we had some of those.

It was actually more than 1200 ft. too, because I took a couple detours. The first detour was to Burnett Canyon. I was 95 percent sure that I would not be able to get to this one. Nonetheless, I had to try, right? And yeah I got down to the top of the falls, but then it was nothing but cliff. No way to get any further along to see the waterfall. Not even a small view of it. Well that was not unexpected, was it, so I scrambled back up the mountain. That detour was probably a couple hundred feet extra.

There is a rope descending down the last 500 ft. to the bottom of the canyon. Believe me, you need to use it the entire way. It is incredibly steep and very difficult. I went down quite a distance. However, when I came to the section where the rope descends along the edge of a 200 ft. cliff dropoff with a very steep descent along the top of it, I balked. I am really freaked out about stuff like this. I like to live. So I thought, I will have to call it quits, and back up the mountain I went. That was probably another 250 ft. for that detour.

When I got back up to the top, I looked at my map. Perhaps there was another way down that was not so crazy. And yeah, actually, maybe there was. It was not too late, I thought I may as well try it. The descent was steep for sure, but it was not cliffy and I did not need my rope. Well I take that back. It did get cliffy near the bottom, and I did need to use my rope for a very short section. But definitely not a 500 ft. long section. I found a way through the cliffs, and got a glimpse of a couple waterfalls. I was giddy.

The first one I wanted to see was Lower Burnett Canyon, but when I finally got to the bottom , I found there was no way to get to that falls. The cliffs descended right to river level on both sides of the river. This was the one out of the three waterfalls that I thought for sure I would be able to see. Nothing doing. This was unexpected, and a bummer. But there was still the other one.

I know of only one other person who has been down here before. Clearly, with that rope being there, others obviously have been down. I have only seen one photo, though, and his photo made this waterfall seem to be very small, 10-15 ft. high at most. Google Earth also seems to think this waterfall is only 15 or so, maybe 20 ft. max. So really, this one was very low priority for me, and I did not even have it on my website, thinking it less than 20 ft. high. Does my photo make it seem this is a small waterfall as well? It is actually 51 ft. high, about 3 times higher than what I was anticipating, and it is a drop dead gorgeous straight drop into a magnificent plunge pool. Wow what an amazing waterfall. It was very unexpected.

I would love to come back here again, but I don’t know if I will, considering how difficult it was. I climbed 500 ft. back up the mountain, and nearly bonked. I still had another 700 ft. to climb too, but I rested, ate some lunch, and eventually got back up to my car. It was an amazing day in that nefarious canyon.

Our FIRST rain storm of the new waterfall season was a whopper. Where else would I go for my first waterfall hike of the new season except to my favorite river, the North Fork American River. We got 2.5 inches of rain on Friday, and the river was up on Saturday morning, but not as high as I thought it might go. Nonetheless, it was high enough. High enough for a rainy day hike and to find a new waterfall in the process.

It is a long hike down to the falls, yet only 4.5 miles. Starting my hike at 7AM, I hoped to get down to it in 2 hours. That seems reasonable, does it not? But at 10AM, I was still quite a distance from the waterfall, and I almost turned back. The terrain was getting steep and brushy, I was hiking through the woods with no more trail to follow, I was soaking wet from hiking through the brush, and there was a big storm coming in the afternoon. I wanted to be back at the car before that started. However, I continued on; it could not be much further, could it? I finally got down to the falls around 10:30AM.

Technically it is a not a “new” waterfall. Kayakers have gone over this falls before, but access for “normal” people is pretty much out of the question. Other than kayakers, I do not know of anyone who has been here (although I’m sure some have). I won’t say how I got here, it was all perfectly “legal” of course. I will say that you do need to cross the river. Of course, that is impossible when the river is high. On Saturday morning, however, the river was at 180 cfs. That is far downstream, up at the waterfall it is probably 1/3 of that amount. So basically, I thought, it might be crossable or it might not. I was able to cross the river without much difficulty. The river was flowing well, but there were some mellow sections. No problem. It was darn cold, though. It was wet and showery all morning, and I was drenched by the time I got to the falls. Was it worth getting so wet? Was it worth the effort and needing to take an extra long time to get down to it, and then having to hike back in the rain? Heck yes! What a magnificent 40 ft. plunge dropping into a narrow spectacular gorge. This was the LAST waterfall on the North Fork that I had yet to see, and after more than one try previously, I finally made it. Bagged! I have seen all eight waterfalls now on this amazing river. See my website if you want to know how to get to this one.

This one was a really fun one to get to. I thought it would be easy. Just rock hop across the river, and walk up to the bottom of the falls on this tributary creek. But … when I got to the creek, I could not see the falls. It was up around the corner. Humm, well I climbed up the ridge and got to the top of the falls. But no view of the waterfall, and it was too steep to get down. One other option: Go back down to the bottom, and wade up the creek to the falls. Fortunately the creek was not deep, but it was quite cold. It worked though. I came to this awesome little nook at the bottom of the waterfall with a great view of the stunning falls. Of course, as soon as I got out my camera gear, the sun came back out. I had to wait, and decided to get out my dinner and sit down. It was not long, however, before the clouds covered the sun again, and I was able to take photos.

This waterfall on NF Goddard Creek is the tallest of the falls in Goddard Canyon at 67 ft. high, and probably hardly ever visited. Yet I think it is the prettiest of all of them.

Once again, I got up very early, packed up my gear, and headed down the trail. I had a long day ahead. I stopped first at the lower falls. This is the largest of the three waterfalls on the SF San Joaquin River, 59 ft. high. I was not expecting the lower falls to be so high and so outrageously beautiful, and it was the easiest to see, being right by the trail with a fabulous overlook. I ate my breakfast here after photographing the waterfall. Perfection established.

From my campsite, it was a 20 mile hike back to my car. I was not really sure that I could hike the entire 20 miles, but I also knew there was a great campsite at the end of Florence Lake, at the 16 mile mark. I wanted to get there at least. The small uphill parts of the hike were a bit tough with my tired legs, but mostly the hike was downhill the entire way, and I felt very good … until I hit the 15 mile mark. That last mile to the campsite was long and tough, I knew I would have to stop at the end of the lake. I probably could have made it the whole way after getting a good rest at the lake, but the last four miles would have a lot of uphill hiking, and I just felt it was better to relax, camp one more night, and then the last four miles in the morning would be very easy. It was also very hot. I wanted to get home, but it would be killer to hike that four miles now. Why do that to myself?

During that last mile to the lake, I almost stepped on a rattlesnake. It was right in the middle of the trail and I was *not* looking down at the time. I was looking at the scenery. Foolish me. I would have stepped on it for sure but thankfully, Mr. Snake was not sleeping, he saw me coming, and moved out of the way before I stepped on him. This near incident was much worse (closer to disaster) than my mountain lion encounter two days prior. Whoosh! Immediately after this, I came across a backpacker who was in very sorry shape. He was out of water and way overheated, and he was on the verge of fainting from heat exhaustion. The last water source was only two miles back, and the river was less than a half mile ahead. How could he be out of water? I did not really know how to help him. I gave him some of my water, and I told him to take off his pack and lay down and rest for a half hour or more to get his energy back. He did not want to take my advice however, and insisted on continuing on the trail. Ok, whatever. But he was going so slow and could not keep up with me. He made it down to the river a little after I did. He did take off his pack there and rested for a good 2 hours, then he headed up the trail on the last 4 miles to the trailhead. I don’t know if he realized there was so much uphill on the last part, and I think he was going to have a very tough time on the hike. I guess he made it. I did not see any bodies along the trail the next morning.

Most every backpacker I met along the trail was very friendly, as you would expect, except for one total jerk. Why is there always one person that ruins your experience? I came across him on the trail on the last day, and he asked me how far it is to Muir Trail Ranch. I knew I had just passed it a little while ago, but of course I would not know the precise distance to it, so I told him it was one or one and a half miles. I thought this was an excellent estimate (and a correct one, I might add). However, not only did he *not* thank me for this information, but instead he just pointed at me and said, “well which one is it? is it one mile or one and a half miles? You may as well have said it is one or thirteen miles”. What the heck??? Give me a break, you idiot. If you want such a detailed and exact distance, then why are you not carrying a GPS yourself, instead of asking other hikers along the trail who don’t give a hoot how far it is to your precious destination? I did not want to get into any big thing with him, so I just said “well, it is one of those two distances”, and then continued on my way without saying good bye or anything else. He was still carrying on about it as I left him. Unbelievable. Some people.

Meanwhile, after setting up camp at the river, I decided to go for a quick dip in the water. It was a hot day, and I was tired. How could I resist? The river was freezing cold, and it was a very quick dip, but it sure felt good. I had a relaxing evening at the campsite, ate my dinner, did some photography, and in the morning took a little more time to get going, having breakfast and some coffee first. This is what backpacking should be all about. The last 4 miles on the trail did have some uphill, but I felt good, and it was a quick and easy 4 miles. The long drive back home included a stop at Pizza Factory to refuel. Now that is a great ending to a great trip.

I was not sure where I should go after visiting Evolution Creek Falls. Should I hike up Evolution Valley? Or should I hike up Goddard Canyon? I really wanted to do both, and I had planned for both. However, the previous day being far too difficult and not being able to get to where I wanted to, had ruined this initial plan. I had limited time (and limited energy), and I now could only do one of these two things. It was one or the other. I could see four smaller waterfalls in Goddard Canyon, or one big waterfall in Evolution Valley. Evolution would be more scenic but also have many more people. It was a huge dilemma. The entire hike up to Evolution Creek Falls I debated the issue. What to do, what to do. Even as I was photographing the falls, I still had not made a decision, and was still going back and forth in my mind. My brain was about to burst! I think the deciding factor was that I saw that the upper portion of Evolution Creek Falls was already in the sun. I had hoped to photograph it as well when I hiked up the valley, but now saw that I was too late for that. So the decision was made: I would hike up Goddard Canyon. The truth of God (dard) trumps the lies of Evolution once again. Seriously, either option would have been awesome, but I do think I made an excellent choice. Goddard Canyon is not as much visited, but there are four spectacular waterfalls here, all of them are a good size and all were flowing well (except for one, which had lower flow than I had hoped).

I arrived at the main waterfall (shown here) about noon. It was a pretty tough climb up the canyon, gaining about 1500 ft. in elevation. This is where I decided to camp, right near the top of the falls. It was a perfect spot, plenty of shade (which is good because it was a hot day), and no one else around. I had the entire canyon to myself! I set up camp, ate my lunch, and took a nap. Clouds rolled in the afternoon, which gave me an idea. I would take a day hike from here up to the two upper waterfalls, then come back and photograph the main falls in the evening, and get back to my camp before dark. For a bonus, I would not have to carry my heavy pack. It was a great idea, and it worked out perfectly. The clouds allowed me to photograph the upper waterfalls without having to wait until the sun was down, and it was a pretty easy hike after having a good rest and not having to carry my pack up there. I was happy, and my body was happy as well. What a great afternoon it was.

This middle falls is arguably the nicest of the four waterfalls (but it is an extremely close call); however, it is very difficult to find a good angle to photograph this one. The slope is quite steep and treacherous. I was afraid I was going to slide right off the cliff into the river below. That would have been fun (except for the landing). This was the best angle I could find without killing myself, although the upper section is a bit out of view. It is a beautiful and utterly spectacular 55 ft. drop, and I got to camp right near the top of it. It was an amazing day in Goddard Canyon.