Leon Turnbull Photography

Here’s some alpenglow of Mt Brokeoff in Lassen Volcanic National Park. The alpenglow only lasted a few seconds and then poof it was gone. I was really hoping those clouds over the mountain would color up a bit but they never did. C’est la vie, I guess.

Well this government shutdown has me annoyed to no end. I would not even care if the parks were closed if they still let us in there to hike the trails, but we cannot even do that. How dare the government take our land away from us. Now Utah is opening their national parks (paying the feds for it), but will California do the same? Of course not. Our governor doesn’t give a crap about our parks. He has proven that already. Oh how I would love to knock some sense into our politicians. This had all better be settled before waterfall season starts or else…

Speaking of which … when “will” it start? Who the heck knows but I sure am anxious about it. I just read one report saying that we could have an above average winter in California (about time, I say). I am hoping so, but then again I read another report we will be having a weak El Nino which is exactly what we had last year, and that makes me think it will be another below average season. How about we split the difference and have a NORMAL AVERAGE  season? After two awful years in a row, that would make me happy enough.

Here you go folks: A brand spanking new waterfall just found in Lassen Volcanic National Park. It is a nice one and a significant drop too at 50 ft. high. Thank you very much, Mr. Amazing and Crazy Waterfall Hunter at waterfallswest.com!

I say that last sentence in jest because of a recent high profile news article in which a certain canoeist in Canada found a previously unknown waterfall while canoeing down a remote river. He claimed it was 40 ft. high but from the picture I saw, it was clearly only around 20 ft. high, and likely less than this! Now he is getting paid money by the Royal Canadian Geographical Society to find waterfalls in Canada. I did not say anything about this previously, but I really thought the whole thing was very lame. I mean, heck, I find new “uncharted” waterfalls all the time. Last waterfall season, for instance, I found Upper West New York Canyon Falls (and it is 150 ft., not 20 ft.), not to mention quite a few others as well (oh I could mention some of them: SF Rubicon River Falls, Upper Clipper Crk Falls, Upper Iowa Cyn Falls, Upper Devils Falls, Iowa Hill Ditch Falls). And I am not the only waterfall hunter that finds new waterfalls. It is not difficult if you know where to look, and have a lot of determination. So it kind of bugs me that he finds a 20 ft waterfall and now gets paid for doing it. One thing I guess I can say about him is that he is a lot smarter than me if he can scam RCGS into paying him to find 20 ft. high waterfalls.

This season (which has only just begun) I now add yet another one to my list, which I am naming West Sulphur Creek Falls. Although not far from a main trail, it is hidden and rather remote. I am quite certain that no one currently in the park service has been to this waterfall or even knows of its existence. I saw no evidence that anyone had been down there in the recent past. Of course I am not foolhardy enough to believe that I am the first person to ever lay eyes on it (I am only slightly foolhardy). In fact, I saw what seemed like a very old road down there but it was so old I am not sure if it even was a road, and certainly has not been used in over 100 years. And if anyone did see it in the past, it was probably just swished away, discounted, ignored, snubbed – even though it is a significant drop at 50 ft. high. That is because it is hidden in an extremely steep canyon, surrounded by cliffs on both sides. The cliffs seem even steeper than those at Mill Creek Falls – and we all know what those are like (see my previous post). It was very difficult to get any view of this waterfall at all, I was standing on a hairy scary precipice, and even then, the top part of the falls is obscured by tree branches, so from this viewpoint it is not very photogenic, but it would be sweet if you could get down to it. It may or may not be possible to do that; I would like to come back and try someday, but I did not have time on this day as I had to get to Chester to meet up with my family for lunch. Oh and by the way … there are more “uncharted” waterfalls in Lassen NP, and some of them may even be a lot bigger than this one.

It is of course rather a huge shame and disappointment that Lassen NP is now closed because of the government shutdown (as well as all other national parks). So now you can’t even go to this waterfall (at least for awhile). It is very irksome for sure. Even the trails are closed. I just don’t understand that. I could understand closing the facilities, but why the trails? Why can’t we still go in there and hike? This is our land, people. Not the government’s.

Five years ago I went to Mill Creek Falls in Lassen Volcanic Natl Park with my friend, Brian Rueb. At that time, we both wanted (badly) to try to get down to the bottom of the waterfall. At that time, we both determined that it was foolhardy to do so, nuts, crazy, whacko, you name it. The terrain from the viewpoint on the trail is incredibly steep down to the bottom. As Brian put it, “things would not go well for you if you tried it”. However … shortly afterwards another friend of mine, Rob The Mountain Goat Macklin went to Mill Creek Falls, and he DID get to the bottom of the waterfall. Both Brian and I thought this was unbelievable craziness. But I know Rob well, and I know how he got to the bottom. No ropes. Just straight down the cliff. He is part mountain goat, you know – I am not kidding.

So five years pass, and I figure it is time to do this. In my mind I determined it could not really be as steep as I thought it was five years ago. The terrain is probably much tamer now. Five years of geology will have made the descent much shallower. There WILL be a way to get down. Well, not so much. I did come armed with a rope this time. When I arrived at the viewpoint, I quickly realized I would certainly need it too. The terrain was not any shallower, that was for sure. With the rope, I made it about halfway down to the bottom or perhaps a bit more than that. But the last section is much worse. There is nothing to hang onto, nothing to tie my rope to, and the descent is incredibly sketchy. It would be a long fall into nothingness if I slipped. I hummed and hawed for awhile, and decided to stop while I was still able to. I took this photo from halfway down the cliff, so the view angle from here is a little different and a little better than from up top along the trail. But darn I wanted to get to the bottom. Will I try again? In another five years? Yes I will. Next time … I will be bringing a much longer rope, one that will reach all the way to the bottom. Will that be enough?

The trail to Mill Creek Falls is not an easy one. It is 2 miles one way (though the sign says it is only 1.6 miles – it is not), and there are a lot of ups and downs on the hike (up 300 ft, down 200 ft, up 50 ft, down 100 ft – you get the idea). It is a huffer. But while as five years ago I remembered the hike practically killing me, this time around I found it to be a walk in the park. It may have something to do with the fact that last time I had climbed up Mt Brokeoff the night before, but I think it is mostly because I am in much better shape. I have lost 20 pounds in the past 6 months, and I feel great, I am in the best shape I have been in the last 14 years. It is so awesome to be able to bike to work every day now. It is such a big difference.

Another thing I noticed that was different from last time was the trailhead sign. This time around, there was no warning sign about mountain lions. It looked like someone had scratched it completely blank. Did the resident mountain lion move on to another part of the park to prey on unsuspecting hikers? Or more likely, perhaps it was the mountain lion himself that scratched off the warning sign – in order to make the hikers along the Mill Creek trail more unwary of being attacked? I joke about that but I did see some mountain lion tracks on the hike this time around. I am not kidding – I am pretty sure they were cat tracks. Hmmm.

Stay tuned folks because my next post from Lassen Volcanic Natl Park is going to be a shocker.

It has been a rough week for me due to being sick. I missed a couple days of work with something or other. Stomach flu, I guess, though I thought it was food poisoning at first. No distasteful vomiting, pleasantly enough, but it was enough horridness to keep me in bed a couple days. Now on Saturday, I have a darn awful cold. Just when I was starting to feel better. Ugh. Anyway, I did recover briefly enough on Friday such that I wanted to get out and hike on Friday evening after work.

I was hoping to catch another good sunset in Lake Tahoe, but it did not look too promising Friday afternoon. It seemed that it was getting more and more cloudy as the day progressed, and rain was moving into the area as well. It could be a total washout. Sometimes Tahoe can be amazing, and sometimes not so much. And most times you won’t know until you get up there which it will be. My alternative was to get up early Saturday and hike somewhere else, but I was starting to feel the cold coming on already and I knew I would not want to get up at the break of dawn on Saturday. Sleeping in was going to be a good option. It was Friday evening sunset at Tahoe or bust. Hopefully not a bust. A few prayers were made.

I have had in mind for a while to try some different hikes at Tahoe for sunset, rather than the usual suspects. But you cannot really decide until you get there to see what the weather is scheming. I got up to the summit, and geez Louise nothing looked too much good. There were heavy clouds everywhere and definitely rain in some spots. It did not seem like it mattered what I did or where I went. Sunset would be most bust-ful. I decided then to make headway on my initial plan and head over to the east side of the lake. I wanted to get a decent hike in anyway, even if it was raining, especially after not doing any exercise this week due to my sicko-ness. Lo and behold, when I arrived at the trailhead, there was some light over the lake. It might not be so bust-ful after all.

It is about a mile from the busy highway where I parked down to Skunk Harbor (Skunk HarboUr for my Canadian comrades). It is a simple and easy hike, except that it seemed to be a lot more descending than I expected – meaning that ascension would be coming later. I had the harbor all to myself. Not even a skunk in sight. It was gorgeous. I have not ever been down here before, but I had seen pictures and I knew I wanted to photograph the lake from here. In particular, I really wanted to see the setting sun line up nicely with this old pier, or pylons, or pile of logs sticking up out of the lake, or whatever they were. Unfortunately, the setting sun was not going to co-operate, thus I had to make do as best I could and shoot from a different angle. Perhaps later in the winter the sun will be more considerate of my needs. I may have to return at that time. And I may just do that, especially if another dry winter is on the horizon.

The sunset, as you can see, was certainly an amazing one. I unquestionably have had good fortune lately at Lake Tahoe with color. God is good. It is not the best sunset I have experienced at Tahoe, but definitely is right up near the top. The color lasted quite a bit longer after sunset this time, getting more and more intense, until finally it started to dissipate. I packed up, by now almost dark, and headed back up the hill, arriving back at the car, huffing deeply, and well after dark. It was a dazzling evening at Lake Tahoe.

This is yet another of the many marvelous waterfalls in the Rainbow Pool area that was recently ravaged by the Rim Fire. This is the third waterfall on the South Fork Tuolumne River, plus the one on the Middle Fork makes four waterfalls in this one location. Such an amazing place. And hopefully it still will be. I measured this falls to be 26 ft high, though it seems a bit smaller to the eye when you look at it. The first time I was here last year, I missed this one because the road was blocked by a huge landslide. The landslide was happily cleared away this year and I could get down to this little dude. Sweetness.