Leon Turnbull Photography

No, your eyes are not deceiving you. This is *not* a waterfall. I can’t shoot waterfalls all the time, you know. Well, I could. In fact, I am not sure the last time I even posted a non-waterfall shot. Hmmm. Well there are, as you may know, three nice waterfalls within a mile of this location, and even more within a couple more miles. And yes I did see one of these waterfalls as I walked up the trail to this lake, but photograph it I did not. My primary mission, should I choose to accept it, was to photograph Eagle Lake at sunset, and photograph it I did.

I was not planning on going to any waterfalls this weekend or even to go hiking at all. I was just going to spend the weekend at home. Relax. Take it easy. Drink lots of beer. Then I heard from certain friends (thanks Karen) that Lake Tahoe was experiencing unusual amounts of smoke and clouds from the Rim Fire. It seemed to me there would be a strong possibility of a very nice, if not spectacular, sunset at Tahoe this weekend. So last minute plan change: drive up to Tahoe after work on Friday evening and find a spot to photograph the sunset. No waterfalls in this plan. Just beautiful Tahoe.

The Rim Fire … currently burning out of control just to the west of Yosemite National Park (far to the south of Lake Tahoe). It has actually now entered Yosemite and is heading rapidly towards Hetch Hetchy. By the time you read this, Hetch Hetchy may or may not in fact be burning. It is turning out to be one of the largest fires in California’s history. After two years of drought, everything is bone dry, and the fires are going nuts. It is certainly sad when people lose their home due to a forest fire, and also sad if beautiful scenic locations are burned (such as Hetch Hetchy if the fire reaches that far). On the other hand, there is much good to fires as well. One of these things is waterfalls. The Rim Fire has already burned quite a few waterfalls. How is that good? Am I nuts? Well it will be bad and ugly in some of the very scenic places (such as the Rainbow Pool area), but there are some other waterfalls that are now going to be suddenly accessible, which up until now have not been accessible due to the inordinate amount of brush surrounding them. If that brush has burned, it will possibly be much easier to reach these waterfalls. I can think of a few in this area that fall into this category, and I am already looking forward to trying to get to them (in the next two or three years).

Anyway, back to Lake Tahoe. There are so many scenic spots in Lake Tahoe for a sunset or sunrise, and any of these can be spectacular or duds. It is a long drive up to Tahoe from Sacramento to see a dud sunset. When I go there for a sunrise or sunset, I never have a specific location in mind. I wait and see what the weather is doing when I arrive there. As I drive down into Tahoe from the summit, I can see where the clouds are lining up and where the best possibility for color is going to be. At first, it seemed to me that Emerald Bay was going to be the best spot. The haze was thick over the lake, but the edge of it seemed to be at the west end of the lake, meaning that it might really color up nicely at sunset over the Bay. When I got over there, however, I changed my mind. The haze was just too thick over the Bay, and it did not look like it was going to color much, if at all (and I was right – there was zero color over Emerald Bay at sunset). I changed my plan and decided instead to hike up to Eagle Lake for sunset. This was a much better idea anyway. I wanted to get a decent hike in, and I have wanted to photograph Eagle Lake at sunset for quite awhile now. This was my ticket. It is only a mile up to Eagle Lake, but it is a bit of a huffer with some elevation gain, and I arrived at the south side of Eagle Lake about 20 minutes before sunset, and there was no one else around. Perfect.

Well I was not the only one around. I could hear noise at the far north end of the lake, splashing in the water. Some big animal? I thought I heard faint voices. Campers, I suppose, though I saw nothing. I heard what appeared to be a duck whistle. I finally came to the conclusion that it must have been those weird Duck Dynasty people trying to scare up all the ducks and other wildlife in the area.

I would not say the sunset was epic by any means, and it was not precisely what I had envisioned, but actually it was pretty darn sweet. Thank you Lord. But it did not last very long. Only minutes after sunset, the color all disappeared. It left as quickly as it had come. Ok then, I packed up and headed back down the hill, thinking I might even get back to the car well before dark. Not so much. The sunset disappeared quickly and the darkness came just as quickly. No problem. I had my headlamp so I was not concerned, in fact, I was expecting to hike back down in the dark, just not quite so early as I did. It was a beautiful evening at Lake Tahoe and definitely worth the trip up there from the valley.

This is Upper Bridge Creek Falls in Oregon. It is not overly impressive, but would be better with higher water flow. I only photographed the upper tier of this falls since it was the most interesting. I got right out on the slippery rocks into the middle of the creek while my family watched non-nonchalantly hoping I did not fall down the lower section of the waterfall – or maybe it was just me hoping I would not slip.

Well this was certainly a fine and pleasant surprise. And not exactly what I had planned either. Or rather not at all what I had planned.

My objective for Friday evening was to go back to Fordyce Falls. PG&E still has Fordyce Creek cranking out at 450 cfs. I’m sure any day they will turn off the faucet, so I wanted to get out there before that happens. Unfortunately there just happens to be a little forest fire in the area. A big one, actually. The American Fire is raging in the North Fork American River Canyon near Foresthill. Fordyce Creek is up near the top of the pass at Yuba Gap, so it is not exactly in the same area but the smoke is hovering over the pass. It was really quite a sight to see driving up I-80. There is a huge mushroom cloud ominously stretching out across the sky. The light is strange, and the color is remarkable. The hike to Fordyce Creek begins at Fuller Lake which is on the edge of the cloud, so I would be hiking right into that looming disaster. I really felt it would be unwise to make an 8 mile hike through all that smoke. It did not seem too bad at Fuller Lake, but to hike 8 miles through the midst of it would be extremely unhealthy. It would probably be like smoking 10 packs of cigarettes all at once. I’m not a smoker, not even for a waterfall. I decided to go back.

But I wanted to do something. After all, I drove all the way up here. I thought maybe I could go for a hike back in the Colfax area. I remembered this waterfall I had heard about on Osita Creek, so I looked up the directions on my iPhone. It is an easy hike, the weather was very warm, and the bugs were obnoxious. I had absolutely zero thoughts of seeing a waterfall here. I was certain the creek would be bone dry, I was only wanting to scout it out for the winter. Essentially, wasting time because I needed to go on at least one short hike.

I had read that this waterfall was only 20 ft. high and that it was man-made. This is the main reason I had never been here before. I had no desires to see any small, man-made waterfall. Boring. Well, I had three fine surprises in one: the creek was flowing half decently of all things, it is much more than 20 ft. high, and it is *not* a man-made waterfall. I did not bring my measuring stick so I am not sure exactly how high it is. Normally I always carry my tape measure (I mean, laser rangefinder) but this time I was not planning to go to any new waterfall and I was trying to save as much weight as possible for a 8 mile hike to Fordyce Creek. Bummer. I estimate though that this waterfall is at least 35 ft. high, perhaps closer to 40 ft. That is about twice the height I had read. Usually when someone says a waterfall is 20 ft. high, it is much less than that. This time it was the opposite. Weirdness indeed. Also, I was happy to find it is not man-made at all. It does flow through a man-made tunnel under the canal at the top of the falls which is unfortunate and detracts from the beauty, but it is still a natural waterfall. As for the flow, I was just shocked to see it so decent in this dry year. Still though, it will be much better to see it in the winter, and I for one will surely be back here.

The fog was a sweet and unexpected surprise. After going to Munson Creek Falls, I had fully expected that by the time we got up here to Bridge Creek, this area would be in full on sunlight. I was not planning to get any more decent photos on this day after Munson. When we arrived and I realized the light was still good, I had to stop and take as much advantage of it as I could. Thank you Lord for keeping the good light for us!

We first went across the road to the Upper Bridge Creek Falls, then went down to the Lower Falls which drops pretty much right into the Wilson River. Neither of the two falls are all that impressive really, and this lower one is half man-made, in that it flows through a pipe under the highway. I cut off the top of the photo right at the edge so you would not have to see the pipe or highway. It is an easy stroll down to the river. Jadon and I were ahead of my wife and Nekoda. When I got down there, I realized the best vantage point would be on the other side of the river. This meant I needed to cross said river. Which meant I needed my water shoes. I zipped on back up the trail to the car to get them. That is where I found my wife and second child sitting, waiting. Lame! Aren’t you two going to go down to see the waterfall? No, you can’t get to it, she said. What are you talking about, how could you possibly know that? I can tell from the bridge, she said. Ugh! There is a good view of the falls at the bottom of the trail! You need to go down there! Well, finally she relented and went down to see it. In the meantime, I found that crossing the river, well, was not difficult at all, but was indeed a lot deeper than it looked to be. The water rose up to my thighs, getting my pants slightly on the damp side. Nonetheless, I made it across without incident and set up shop to take my photos.

I went back to Horsetail Falls again after work on Friday. It is the only waterfall around here that is still flowing decent. This is what I like to do in the summer, … go to Horsetail Falls. It sure seems I go here a lot anyway. Well, I guess it is a pretty sweet waterfall. Heh heh.

The weather was a lot cooler than when I came here a few weeks ago with my son. Twenty degrees cooler, actually. 63 degrees when I started the hike. Now that is sweet. The water flow, however, seemed quite a bit down since the last time. It is still quite nice though, especially considering everything else is bone dry. In fact, I may even come back again in a couple weeks.

I went to the bottom of the falls again, which is a very cool spot, no doubt my favorite little spot at this waterfall. I have been here before and gotten decent shots, so basically this time around I was just playing around. I was going for some super long exposures of the water. This one here is a 60 second exposure. I did longer ones too, but this was my favorite shot. My wife probably hates it. She doesn’t like the silky waterfalls that I like to do (which I almost always do in my photos) – so this one is probably light years over the top for her. As for me, I think it is very dreamy, but I also found that I don’t really have the patience for these super long exposures. Waiting around for two minutes per shot, whilst standing in the very cold water, umm, not exactly super exciting. Ah well, it does create a cool effect on the water. I guess I can handle it once in awhile.