Leon Turnbull Photography

I did not get to anything new on this day, but it was a fun day to play in the snow.

Actually, I was hoping to get to one new waterfall but as soon as I arrived I knew it would be impossible. There was too much snow on the ground, the waterfall would be completely covered, but I knew Rattlesnake Creek would be flowing.

There was about 9-10 inches of snow on the ground at Cisco Grove. That was a bit less than expected from the last storm, but still too much to hike in. Unless you have snowshoes, which of course I did, and which of course I used. I trudged through the snow for a half mile, without too much difficulty, but it was tough sledding. After that, I came across snowmobile tracks from the previous day, going up the mountain. That made things a lot easier for me to just walk in the already laid out tracks. How far would they go? Not far enough, apparently. The snowmobiles had turned around about a half mile from the Middle Falls, and so I continued trudging on through the almost but not quite one foot of snow. I arrived at the Middle Falls, and it looked pretty, but how to get up close to it? That was definitely a challenge, but a fun challenge. I got off the main road, and worked my way over to the creek. It was much deeper snow through here, and I had to descend a steep bank, over a few logs, cross a mini creek, over some more logs, not knowing what exactly is under my feet (in other words, am I going to fall through and into the freezing cold and deep creek?), carefully, ever so carefully, and finally I arrived at the base of the Middle Falls. I got out my camera, had to climb over some more logs, this time I could see the huge hole under my feet, but I kept my snowshoes placed carefully on secure logs (I hope they are secure!) in order to not fall through into the freezing creek (and henceforth die), then finally got in front of the falls, I set up my tripod, planting it through the snow and into the creek, while I sat down on a snow covered rock, with my snowshoes still securely planted on the logs. Does that sound like an adventure to you?

Anyhow, all that done, I turned around and did everything in reverse, finally getting back to the main road in one piece. I decided to skip the upper falls, as that would have been a heckuva lot more effort, another four miles of snow hiking. I still had time to get back to the Lower Falls before it got in sun, so that’s what I did, making it down there just in time. With the increased amount of snow, I found it a lot harder to get up close to the Lower Falls, and even had to (literally) climb straight up the lower cascade in the creek, in order to get up to it this time. That was rather hair raising. I also fell through a huge hole climbing down to the creek. As I fell, my mind was racing, wondering just how far I was going to fall through, and if I would ever see the light of day again. I only fell through to my waist and no injuries, but I suppose it could have been worse. I will share that photo later.

The storms we have had this year so far, including these last two big ones, are still not El Nino related. The storms this year so far have been pounding the Pacific NW, and California has just been getting the last remnants of their stuffings. As usual, that always seems to be the case for us. We are still well below average for the year thus far. In an El Nino pattern, the Pacific NW will be dry, and southern California will be hit hard. I am still anxiously waiting for us to get into that El Nino storm pattern, but now it looks like that may not happen until mid January, which is very late for such a strong El Nino. Sigh. I saw one news article saying that El Nino is destroying the Polar Vortex this year. It is true that the Polar Vortex is nowhere to be seen in the east this year, and the east has been very dry thus far, but I am not sure that El Nino has anything to do with it. Nonetheless, for all you easterners, I say too bad so sad. You have had four good years in a row, while we have been suffering in a horrendous drought. It is our turn this year, so deal with it (and hopefully, much more than just one year too). Can I hear an Amen?

This was my favorite of the five waterfalls I found on Grayhorse Creek last weekend. It looks drop dead gorgeous in the snow, and is 66 feet high.

From the lower falls it is a steep and tough climb up the canyon, and the further I gained in elevation the more snow I found. By the time I got to the upper waterfalls, there was quite a lot of snow and ice in the creek, making for some gorgeous scenery. Strangely, I found an old sign on a tree near the upper Falls which said “State game refuge”. It is hard to imagine that anyone had ever been up so far in this remote canyon before, let alone would put a sign up here on a tree. Yet I did see an old Trail up here, following it here and there, so obviously people have been up here before at some point in the distant past, but it is not one that anyone likely knows about these days.

This beauty is not the biggest waterfall on the creek however. Just above this 66 foot falls is a massive waterfall, perhaps 400 feet high, not far off the magnitude of Horsetail Falls. The lower section is easily seen, but it gets very steep very quickly, and viewing this monster is going to be a challenge. It is one that is going to look a lot more impressive in the spring time and I will be back here then for sure, but I am not sure what kind of views I will get of it.

Well it was getting late in the day, the sun was out now, and I had to make my way back down the canyon and then back up to the car. I saw no one, absolutely no one the entire day. Even back at Hell Hole reservoir I saw no one, and no cars on the road either. It was not until I got back on the main highway to Georgetown, and hearing the song that came on, the first words of which Don Henley sings “nobody on the road”. Ironically, immediately after he says those words, I see the first car on the road. If you know which song that is without looking it up, then you are awesome and you get 10,000 points.

When I discovered this waterfall on Grayhorse Creek at Hell Hole Reservoir last spring, I could not get down to it because I was backpacking and did not have a rope with me. I thought it might be possible to get to it with a rope, so it was high on my list to return here. I made it just in time. One more storm and this area will be closed for the winter.

The forecast for the last storm was 4-8 inches at this elevation. I was definitely thinking it a good possibility that I would not make it there. Eight inches is about the limit for my SUV. My next vehicle is going to have much more clearance for sure, but it’ll be a few years before I can afford another one. I had hoped to be at the trailhead by 6AM, but the drive was very slow going due to the snow on the road, not to mention that it was very icy. Ending up in the ditch would not be a good idea. Or even worse, off a cliff. As it turned out, other cars had driven the road the day before, and there was only 4-5 inches of snow. So it was on the very low end of the forecast, which in a way is disappointing because we need that snow, but I might not have made it there if there was more than 8 inches of new snow. I arrived at the trailhead at 6:30AM, 30 minutes late. It was going to be a stretch to make it to the waterfall before the sun got to it. Well I had to try.

Off I trampled through 4 inches of snow, following deer tracks and coyote tracks. Those coyote tracks looked pretty darn fresh, I wondered if I was going to catch up to him or not. But alas, I saw nothing but a friendly squirrel (at least, I assume he was a friendly squirrel). It was a beautiful crisp morning, perfect for a snowy hike, and a pretty nice sunrise overlooking Hell Hole Reservoir with fresh snow on the mountains (I did stop to take a photo). Unfortunately, Hell Hole Reservoir is looking pretty sad, but we are still praying that will change this spring.

I reached the creek above the falls a bit after 8AM. It seemed to still be in shade, but not for much longer. I got out my rope to begin the descent, but it was snowy and icy, and felt much too dangerous, a lot more dangerous than my recent trip to Patterson Creek. Uh, what should I do. Well I thought, what if I went further downstream, and then came back to the falls along the creek bed. The water flow was much lower than in the spring, indeed I had thought it would be flowing a lot better after this recent storm. It was easy enough to get down to the creek downstream, no rope required, and then it was very simple to walk up the creek bed. I did not even get my feet wet. I got up to the waterfall, and it was spectacular, a lot bigger than I had previously estimated: 69 ft. high, just falling a foot short from the 70 ft. marker. The flow was low, but it was still gorgeous. It would certainly be amazing in the spring if you can get down to it. I was ecstatic to make it here, but it was still early, and I was hoping to find even more waterfalls on this creek. And indeed, I did. And they were even more amazing than this one. Come back soon to find out.

I guess you can say I was 2 out of 5 for the long weekend. That is a pretty lousy score if you want to keep score.

My hope was to get to two brand new waterfalls on this day. It started off well. In the dark. It was very dark. Walking down that logging road in the dark. With lots of spooky things around me making noises in the bushes. Some of those things sounded pretty big. And they sounded like they were stalking me. In the dark. But all I saw were a couple bunny rabbits. And they were not of unusual size if you know what I mean.

Things were all good until I hit the poison oak. The road ended. The brush began. I was not expecting that brush, I thought it would be an easy walk down to the bottom of the canyon. But that poison oak was monstrous. It was all over the place. I did not, I repeat did not, want to pound my way through all that. It was still a long way to the bottom, and no end in sight to the brush or oak. I decided to call it and hike back up the mountain. Even so, I think I got in a bit too much of the oak. Indeed, I did get a bit of the rash, but fortunately only a small bit.

Well, I was really bummed about missing out on getting to these new waterfalls. I will have to re-plan and hopefully try again at Christmas time. But all was not lost. It was still early enough, that I thought perhaps, possibly, maybe, potentially, I might have time to hop down to Montgomery Creek Falls before it got in the sun. Whenever I want to go to that one, it always seems too late in the day, and too sunny, but today it was earlier since I ended my hike early. I scrambled down to the bottom of the canyon, and just barely, by the skin of my teeth, it was still in shade. I just had enough time to take a couple decent shots. It salvaged a disappointing day.

This is a fairly popular place, and easy to get to, and thus that means a lot of stupid people will come down here and leave their trash. I saw quite a bit and so picked it up on my way back up the hill. There was one old plastic bag that broke apart in my hands, getting plastic pieces all over me. It must have been down there a couple years, it was so old. I find it hard to believe that so many people could walk right by this trash for two years or so and not bother to pick it up (it was right beside the trail). Really, people? Why do we have to trash such beautiful places? Is it really so hard to pick up your litter and take it back to your vehicle? It seems to be the thing now for people to litter. The other day we were walking through a parking lot, and some guy on a bicycle came by and threw his bike light on the ground and kept going. I thought he just dropped it, so I said hey, you dropped your light. But he said he knew and just kept right on going. What??? You don’t want your light so you just throw it anywhere? You can’t go 1 minute out of your way to the trash can? Oh man, it just makes me so angry. Thus ends another rant. Have a nice day everyone.

REI thinks they are leading some sort of innovation with their #optoutside and not opening on Black Friday. Well I have news for them, they are not. I have been hiking on Black Friday for years. It has always been my favorite day of the year to hike. I know many of you also already opt outside on this day.

I don’t get why they are doing this anyway. They’re just losing money. I personally don’t care if people like to shop on Black Friday. In fact I prefer it. Then I won’t see anyone on the trails.

But either way I knew I wouldn’t see anyone on the trail where I was going on this Black Friday  (and I didn’t).

Last time I was up in this area I was hiking with a bad back. That was not cool. I also saw a fisher. That was very cool. Neither of those things were true today. It was, however, only 10 degrees outside. Too cool (literally). It was so cold I put on an extra sweater for the hike. I knew I would be shedding it and have to carry it. Not cool. Sure enough less than a mile in I was sweating and I had to take it off. Oh well. At least I was warm for that first mile.

It occurred to me (after I had driven 150 miles to get here) that the creek might be completely frozen, which would mean no waterfall. That would most certainly suck. Fortunately though, it was not and it did have decent (but not great) flow.

After three miles or so my road ended at a creek crossing. The road actually continued on the other side but there was a huge dropoff. The ground was very icy and I just could not climb up the other side in a safe manner. I spent a lot of time trying but finally gave up. Not to be deterred though, I backtracked a half mile and crossed where it was less steep, then climbed up the other side eventually getting back to the road. Now I was worried about the inevitable descent back down to the creek, which would undoubtedly be icy and steep. Plus I was worried about the sun. I only had til 9:30 before the sun would be on the falls. Time was running out.

I came to the descent. It didn’t look too bad. Down I went … until the very last section I came to a cliff right above the falls. Seriously? All this way for nothing? I contemplated about what to do, and I almost gave up.

But again I was not deterred. I got out my rope and descended down to the creek. Not down the cliff! There was a slope down, it was very steep and as I said the ground was hard and icy but I carefully made it down. I could not have done it without the rope. Once down I realized I had to cross the creek to get the best view of the falls. You do understand that the water was freezing! It was very slippery too, but I made it across safely. Such a gorgeous 25 ft cascade in this remote canyon, and a stunning emerald green pool it dropped into. It was a fantastic Black Friday for me! And I saw absolutely no one all day.