Leon Turnbull Photography

Well I was definitely pleased and surprised to find this waterfall, but it wasn’t my plan. Let me please explain my dear readers. Why, of course, you say…

There is, I believe, a bigger waterfall on this river, above this one. It is the East Fork of the North Fork of the North Fork of the American River. Say that three times fast. Or try EFNFNFAR for short. I first learned about these waterfalls from the late Russell Towle. I did not see any photos from him, but he indicated this lower falls was 10-15 ft. high. Later on, a friend of waterfallswest also got down to the lower falls, and not the upper one, and he also is crazier than I am (you can take that as a complement, Joey). However, his photo and description also made it seem that the lower falls was only 15 ft. high at the very most. So in a nutshell, I figured I could either try to get to the upper falls in which there was a 95 percent chance that I would fail miserably, or I could go to the very small lower falls. Neither of which appealed to me, and so I just did not even bother.

Well so this weekend rolls around and I have nothing better to do, so I determined to give this one a go, but my plan was to try to make that 5 percent happen and get to the upper falls. To be sure, years ago I have tried this waterfall before, but my route at that time was faulty. This time, the route was golden. I was very pleasantly surprised when I got down to the river to find it flowing halfway decent. There was about an inch of rain a week ago, but that is not much considering the drought, and I expected the river to be all but a trickle. How awesome that I might actually get to see some water flowing over a waterfall today. Well as it turned out, my routed put me too far to the left, it was too cliffy further to the right, and thus I ended up coming all the way down to the river below the lower falls. I figured I would at least try to get up to that small one, if nothing else. I had to cross the river (which fortunately was easy to do so, and then waded up the river towards the falls). Then I saw it ahead of me.

Wow! What a surprise, what a beauty! It is not a piddly little 10-15 footer, but a very gorgeous 32 ft. high gem. Magnificent! The cliffs on both sides of the river were completely massive, in fact it was just a teensy bit scary standing in the pool below the falls with the massive cliff looming above me. What if a big old bear above decided to knock a nice big old rock onto my head. That would not be very fun. Anyway, it certainly is a surprisingly nice waterfall, and the emerald green water was amazing. Will I try that upper falls again someday? Absolutely, and if we don’t get rain anytime soon, maybe it won’t be too long in the future.

I was quite excited to finally get to this 29 ft high charmer on the Little North Fork of the Middle Fork Feather River. It’s my first “new” waterfall of the season and I’m hoping for much more this winter and spring. Come on rain!

Now I knew there was a 30 footer on this river “somewhere” because I read about it from some kayakers but where it was exactly was a complete mystery and how to get there was even harder. It took three tries and much pondering of GE and topo maps until success finally presented itself.

The first time I had a vague idea where it might be but it turned out to be quite wrong. After that I realized where it was so I tried again and indeed I found it but I could not see it. In order to see it, it is necessary to cross the river and at that time the flow was much too high. Now I would try one last time. This time the river was lower but I was a bit worried it was still too high, especially after the recent rain that just happened. That rain would sure be nice for the waterfall but I somehow would need to cross that river. Well here I go.

It is a steep and difficult hike to get down to the falls. Much poison oak. Much steep cliffy terrain. When I finally got down to the river I could see it was flowing quite strong. I didn’t think I’d be able to cross it. Was this all a big wasted effort again? I had to try it. There were three steps I would need to make across the narrow torrent and avoid falling and being swept downstream, and probably over a few more waterfalls before I found myself in Lake Oroville. Well, it turned out to be not as bad as it looked. I was able to hold onto one rock, step out into the middle of the river, reach out and grab onto a rock on the other side, hold onto it for dear life and drag my other foot across through the torrent. Made it. I sure hoped I would be able to get back across though. Once on the other side I easily made my way up closer to the falls for a very sweet view and shot. It’s not a huge one, but sure is a beauty.

I took my shots and then hurried back across the river before it decided to rain any more and thus increase the flow in the river. That would certainly suck. I would probably be stuck down there until next summer. Bear meat and such.

My GPS was having troubles working down in that canyon, thus making it difficult to find my way back home. So I just went up. Up the mountain, back to the main trail which I was able to find with minimal GPS help. I got back to the car and as I was putting my bear spray away somehow the safety lock came off and I sprayed it all over my hands! I strongly suggest you not ever do this. I washed my hands off with the water in my water bottle as best I could, but I could not get it all off, especially under the fingernails. That stuff lingers on forever. And if you just happen to touch any other part of your body such as your face or eyes or any other certain parts, then it stings for a long time. Not that I did any of that, but just trust me, it stings. I can definitely see why the bears do not like it. Well I did make it home all right and got cleaned up, but now I just hope that I don’t get that dreaded poison oak itch.

500 miles. Would you drive that far to see a waterfall on a day hike? What if there is a four year drought and there are no other waterfalls flowing in the state and this was a special weekend release on the river?

Oh did I mention that you needed to get up at 3am in order to arrive in time for good lighting conditions for taking photos?

Well the waterfall madman would. And in fact … did.

PG&E was having a weekend recreational release on the Pit River for kayakers increasing the flow from 400 to about 800 cfs. I do like to take advantage of these releases as well, especially in the summer, and with double the flow it would be amazing. Wouldn’t it?

The last time I was here the flow was about 500 cfs so I expected it to be utterly spectacular today. It was also the hike I badly twisted my ankle on. The trail hasn’t gotten any better. I think worse, probably. It is steep and very crumbly with many loose rocks. I can easily see how I twisted it before. Needless to say, I was extra careful hiking down this year. No close calls, but I went down the wrong way, thinking it would be a better way, but it ended up worse with more loose rocks to fall on, more brush to smash through, and more poison oak to rub all over my body with. Later when I went back up the mountain, I went the correct way of course.

When I got down to the falls it did not seem to be turned up yet. According to the website, the release was supposed to happen at 8am so I expected to see a much increased flow very shortly. The flow was definitely more than last time I was here but it did not seem to be double the flow for my good pleasure. I could tell it was more because last time I could get right down up close to the falls but if I did that this time I’d be having to walk through the water and get my wet feet. I didn’t dare go down today. It would be suicide (literally) if suddenly the flow was increased any more. I stayed in a safe place, I took some photos and waited. And waited. And waited. As it turned out the flow was actually increased the previous night. When I finally realized it wasn’t going to be getting any better, I made the hike back out of the canyon.

I stopped for one last gander from the falls overlook. Some kayakers came up to look at the falls and I heard them say it’s HUGE and they were all quite excited about it. Well I guess they would know but it seemed to me to be closer to 500 than 800 cfs. I guess I was just thinking the falls would span the entire River at that flow, though the kayakers’ comments definitely made me a bit happier that I made such a long drive up here to see it. But next time I come here it will be 1200 cfs at least.

Look ma, water! Is this Mars or is this California? What is your guess? If you said Mars, then I am sorry to say that you are incorrect (as unlikely as it seems that this would be California, and I can’t blame you for guessing Mars).

Of course, the big news from NASA a couple weeks ago was that they have apparently found tiny rivulets of water on Mars. I suppose that means Mars has more water than California right now. Sigh. But if they do have waterfalls like this one (or bigger), then I am wondering how can I get there to see them?

This is the South Fork Feather River and it is going right now at about 400 cfs. Obviously it is a controlled river, and every year they have a recreational release mainly for the kayakers. I really did not think they would have it this year, however, because of the drought. But surprise surprise, they did. I was here last year and despite the hecka long killer drive out to it and despite it being a small waterfall, I decided to come back again this year for a couple reasons: (1) I wanted to get down to it on the other side of the river where I would get a different (and possibly better) angle of the falls, and (2) There is nothing much else to see in California right now. (I’m serious: is there anyone that can take me to Mars?)

So it’s 4AM. Off we go … About 1800 hours later (give or take) I arrive at the dam and parking area. The water is flowing. That’s a relief. No kayakers in sight. I was a bit surprised about that but so much the better. I will have the waterfall all to myself today. I crossed the dam and scrambled up to the top of a ridge. I was thinking there would be a good trail traversing the ridge over to the falls. However, there really was not much of a trail and what there was was quite difficult to follow. Perhaps that is because I went off in the wrong direction, staying too high above the river. The route soon became far too brushy to continue. Dang. I was not expecting to have to do battle with the brush here. It was too late to try the other side of the river (where I went down last year). So, I backtracked my steps, and then tried a route further down closer the river, and fortunately I found a path through the brush and a slightly (only slightly) better trail too, which led all the way over to the waterfall. There was a big log blocking my way though. The only way past it was to go under it, and I had to shed my camera backpack to squeeze under, and as I did this I somehow managed to kick my backpack, which promptly started tumbling on its own downhill and towards the cliff, off of which it would promptly land in the river. It did not make it that far, fortunately, and stopped before it got to the cliff edge, but it did raise my anxiety level slightly. Needless to say, I was much more careful on the return trip, going back under that log. Once down near the falls, I found quite a lot of mist so I had to shoot from further back, but I had plenty of time before the sun arrived, and it was highly enjoyable. Such a long awful drive, but it was easily worth it to see some good water falling in California.

So what about El Nino and the big winter that is supposed to save us? I was really hoping we would have an early start to the winter this year, but it is October and we are still dry, and in fact was close to 100 degrees in late September and it still can’t seem to drop out of the 90’s (though maybe we are seeing signs finally that things will change in October). If we don’t get rain by December our reservoir will be dry (literally). It is currently 17 percent of capacity, and the 2nd lowest it has EVER been. And now for some more bad news: El Nino seems to be peaking already, or almost peaking. Remember what I said earlier about the two strong El Ninos that peaked early in summer/fall? Those two years of so-called strong El Ninos (1966, 1988) resulted in horrible winters in California. Now I am wondering if this so-called strong El Nino has peaked too early but hopefully it will still be ok, it has not quite peaked yet. Keep praying folks.

I tried a new hike this weekend and it was almost really great. That is, to hike up above Horsetail Falls in the Desolation Wilderness without actually hiking up Horsetail Falls. That could be a challenge, yes? But I hate, really hate, the route up alongside Horsetail Falls. Of course I have done it before many times, but it freaks me out now in my old age. So how can I get up to the amazing area above Horsetail Falls without going up Horsetail Falls? The answer: Rocky Canyon.

Rocky Canyon is a steeper route and more difficult, but not so crazy treacherous and dangerous. In fact, it is not dangerous at all. The only problem is the brush, the awful brush. Indeed, I almost turned back, but persevered and found the way through, and after that the rest of the hike was easy smeasy.

However, I arrived at my destination, Ropi Lake, much too late. According to my calculations, the waterfall still should’ve been in shade, but it was clearly not. This is the second time in a row that the Photographers Ephemeris program screwed me over. Has anyone else found issues with this program recently? Well, I’m sure it was user error, and I will not be making this mistake again (he says so confidently). The sun still should have been behind the ridge, but it was well above it, for at least an hour or more, and I was not that late in arriving. Anyhow, I climbed out on the very slippery and dangerous logs to get in the middle of the creek, in order to get this shot of the lower part of the falls, which is certainly not a particularly good one.

On the way back, I passed through a campsite. The backpackers were gone off on a day hike, I saw them heading in the direction of Pyramid Peak. What amused me about their camp site, was the way they hung their food. It was horrendous! The food was strapped on a rope over a branch, only a couple feet off the ground. It would not have been able to prevent squirrels from getting into it, let alone bears. Seriously, you may as well just lay out all your food on a table cloth complete with napkins and utensils for the bears. A royal feast for them I would say.

I did hike back down along Horsetail Falls. I have never had trouble before going down that route, only going up. I knew there was one sketchy section but I was certain that I would have no troubles getting down. But alas, I was wrong again. There were a couple other sketchy sections that I did not remember even seeing before. One of them in particular was pretty crazy to get down safely. It was also darn hard on my old knees. Well, I did make it down and all in one piece. I’m definitely not too excited about trying that again. I would definitely do the Rocky Canyon route again though, if I can figure out a way to get around that awful brush.