Leon Turnbull Photography

When I heard from a friend last weekend that the Foresthill Rd was open already, I was in shock. How strange is this? There should be 5-10 feet of snow on the road up there right now in a normal year, but with the meager 12 percent of average snow pack we have this year, that means there is no snow on the Foresthill Rd. This is probably a record for the earliest the road is open. Yet the creeks do have water in them from the small amount of snow that is melting and from some recent rain (though it will not last very long). I was not even thinking about Foresthill until last weekend, but that changed quickly. I figured I had better get up to my favorite area before all the water is gone.

On Monday, I had an epic all day hike planned out. It was going to be awesome, and I would have a brand new waterfall in the bag. However, by Friday afternoon I had serious doubts about this epic adventure. From my initial calculations, I figured this new waterfall would be in the shade by about noon. That would be perfect, giving me plenty of time to get down there and back out before dark. When I re-calculated on Friday, I realized that was incorrect. It would actually be in the sun much later, possibly until as late as 4PM. There is no way I could wait down in the canyon anywhere near that long, I would be hiking back in the dark for certain, and I definitely did not want to hike all the way down there and not be able to take a good photograph of the waterfall. This is really important in my world, and I plan all my hikes to be able to arrive at the waterfall destination in good lighting conditions. If the lighting is bad, I will not even take any pictures. Besides all this, but I had doubts about my back. On an all day hike, I would have to carry a lot more water, and also a lot more gear. My backpack would be a lot heavier, and I did not think my back could handle such a load on a such a long hike (it would be 3500 ft. of elevation hiking back out of the canyon). Also, I wasn’t even sure about my route. It would be crazy steep. Could I even make it to this waterfall?  All these doubts overwhelmed me, and so as I got into bed that night I made a final decision and opted for Plan B. I still want to try to make it to this other waterfall someday, but I will have to figure out a better plan on how to do it.

Plan B was a much easier trek back to Tadpole Canyon, where I have been 3 times before. On the last time there, I noticed another waterfall in upper Tadpole Canyon. I did not have time to check it out then, but I vowed to return. And so I did yesterday. It is a strange waterfall, but a very pretty cascade. I say strange because it is bigger than it looks. Up close it seems more like 20 ft. high, but it actually is 41 ft. high. (I measured it). There is an upper 13 ft. section you cannot see from the base of the falls (in this photo), and the bottom section that you can see here is 28 ft. high. Anyway, it is certainly very pretty. And also very hidden away. I suspect very few others ever knew this was here. You would not see it if you were on the normal route along the Iowa Hill Ditch. For some reason, the last time I was here I hiked a much higher route, and that is when I saw it. Lucky me. And lucky you, cuz now you know about it too.

Speaking of strange, I learned later that when I was here, there was a drunk that put his car into the ditch on the other side of the road immediately opposite the Beacroft trailhead. It is so odd that I did not see it when I drove here, and when I left two hours later, I saw nothing also. I wonder also that if I had gone on that epic hike as initially planned, I would be driving up past here earlier in the morning, and perhaps I would have run into the drunk coming down the hill. Perhaps God’s angels were keeping me safe by giving me all those doubts on Friday. You gotta wonder.

This is Flag Falls on Table Mountain (not Cow Falls). I thought it was interesting to have the cows in the field above them.

I saw a heck of a lot of cow bones on my way out to Flag Falls. It was definitely very eerie walking through this one particular wooded area, thinking that a mountain lion was going to ambush me. I did see a coyote in this area. Coyotes are ok. Mountain lions are not.

I went back to Codfish Falls this weekend hoping to find some new waterfalls and hoping the creeks would still be flowing well after the rains of a couple weeks ago. Nada to both.

I did shoot one new-ish waterfall, that being Jefferson Canyon Falls which is right beside the road. But it was not flowing very well and I was quite bummed about that, so I probably won’t share that photo, but I do have it on my website here.

I was happy to see that the State Parks removed the stupid pay kiosk here. It was so stupid to have to pay $10 to go on a one mile hike, especially considering how bloody awful the road is down here. If I’m going to pay that much for parking they sure as heck better fix the stupid road (did I mentione it was stupid). Maybe someone at the State Parks finally wised up. Or maybe they just took the kiosk out for the winter. I sure hope it is the first thing and not the second thing. I also hope they removed the kiosks at the other places where there should not be any (like Knickerbocker, and the Confluence).

It is an easy hike out to Codfish Falls and I arrived early, before the sun got to it. The creek was flowing ok but not as strong as I expected. More rain please!

I didn’t really have any desire to return to Codfish Falls, but I wanted to explore further upstream, thinking there might be another waterfall up there somewhere. So after shooting Codfish Falls, I went up to the top. There is a trail up there, and surprisingly it continues all the way up the canyon. The bad thing, however, is that it is completely overgrown with poison oak. The oak was unavoidable. I made sure to scrub down when I got home, but I am sure hoping I do not get the dreaded rash. I went all the way to Little Codfish Creek, and beyond that until I got to the place where I thought there might be a waterfall. No waterfall was found, except for a five footer. I thought about continuing further, but I also kinda wanted to see if I could get up Little Codfish Creek because I think there might be a waterfall on that creek as well. Unfortunately, there is no trail up that canyon, and it just had far too much poison oak to make an attempt, so I turned and went back down, but I really need to figure out a way to get up there. Someday.

This was a bit of a surprise and I was definitely happy to find this new waterfall. I was not sure there even would be another waterfall in Mexican Gulch; I suspected there might be one, but more often than not, I find nothing instead of something.

I almost found nothing again. I could see the top of the waterfall as I descended from the road down into the gully. As I got closer, I got a good look at it and realized it was just a small, unworthy waterfall, only about 15 ft high at most. I was disappointed, thinking I had struck out yet again. At that point, I almost went back up the hill. It would be pointless to continue, however, at the last moment, I decided to descend all the way to the creek to get one more look at it from below. It was not difficult to go down, and if it was difficult I certainly would not have continued any further. When I reached the creek I was in for a big surprise. There was a lower tier that I could not see from above. This totally changed the dynamics of this waterfall. What at first seemed to be a small, boring, unworthy 15 ft. waterfall, now became a very pretty, two tiered waterfall, 25 ft. in height. Awesome! The Madman strikes again.

This waterfall would be quite amazing at high flows I am sure. Mexican Gulch is a small stream, but I really thought it would be flowing much better than it was. I certainly would like to return here at some point, when I know the creek will be rushing very strong. If we ever get out of this drought, that is.

P.S. I now have a SUBSCRIBE button for my blog on the left side. You can now keep up to date with all my blog posts.

Here is a new waterfall for you and me. But is it a surprise? Certainly it is not an unknown waterfall. It is located right beside the road on the way down to the ever popular Devil’s Falls. But I had never before stopped to photograph it, or even consider it as being a worthy waterfall. At least to say, I have only once before been down this way when it is flowing well, and that was many many years ago. It is on a very small drainage and needs a lot of rain to be flowing well, and usually if it has rained a lot, I have many other places to attend to, I never go down to Devil’s Falls area. But it does in fact qualify as a worthy waterfall for my website. You may have not considered it before if you have seen it, but it is actually on a named stream (Quail Trap Ravine), and is certainly over 20 ft high (it is 40 ft high), and it does flow throughout the winter season (though it does need much rain to flow well).

So anyway with all that in hand, I wanted to make a point to get a good photograph of the waterfall when it was flowing well. This weekend seemed like a prime time to do so.

It is a crazy, narrow, steep road down to Devil’s Falls, with humongous dropoffs. I hate it. There is no where to park at Quail Ravine at all, so I parked back up the road and walked down to it. It is not a particularly photogenic waterfall, and it could have used a bit more flow. The upper section, however, seemed a bit more photogenic from roadside. But could I climb up to it? As I examined the ascent up the rocks, it seemed to me quite possible. To go up. But coming back down would be another matter entirely. What the hey. I went up. I took my photos of the photogenic section of the falls. I turned around. I thought I might be trapped up there forever like a quail in Quail Trap Ravine, or die trying to get back down. I am kidding, but it definitely was tricky getting back down, and I had to use my rope to make the descent safely. No problem though.

On to the next waterfall. I did find a second new waterfall as well, which was more of a surprise find. It was not one I knew about, only suspected of its existence, but not overly confident of said existence. Well it does exist, and I will share the details very soon. It definitely made me a happy camper to find another new waterfall in the area.

I then made a stop at Devil’s Falls before I headed back up the crazy narrow hill. Devil’s was flowing very well. The rain in the past week has been very good. Folsom Lake has risen from 30 percent to 37 percent with the latest series of storms, but the real bad news is the snow pack, which currently is at only 15 percent of normal, and only one month left in the snow season. Even if we get a couple more big storms, we are still going to be in a terrible struggle to get through the summer.

Down at Yankee Jim’s bridge, it was a madhouse. This location is a prime takeout and put in spot for kayakers on the North Fork American River, and it seems every kayaker and their dog was out on this day. As I crossed the bridge, a slow car cut in front of me with a trailer of kayaks and headed up the hill. Although it is steep and narrow, there are plenty of spots to pull over to let someone pass. Is it not common courtesy to pull over when you are going very slow with a trailer and someone obviously faster than you is behind you? I mean geepers, come on, just have some courtesy eh. Darn kayakers, how rude. Ok, end rant. Carry on.