Leon Turnbull Photography

Last June I made it down to Tadpole Canyon Creek on the strangest of days. It was foggy (which is very odd for June), and indeed it was so foggy that I literally could not even see the waterfall. The fog slightly lifted for about 10 seconds and I was able to glimpse this majestic waterfall (and also take a picture). It was so nice of God to do this for me. But I vowed to return to the location this year, with no fog, and also when the waterfall would be flowing better. I did both things, but with the awful snow pack this year and all the snow melted already, the waterfall was only flowing marginally better, yes it was flowing decent, but it was not going bonkers (like it should be doing at this time of year). I guess I may need to make another trip back next year (which sure as heck BETTER be a good year).

I started the hike early from Beacroft trailhead. I had a bit of difficulty getting in there from Foresthill Rd with my little Honda. It seems that the road has gotten worse there since last year. How did that happen? The trail follows the old Iowa Hill Ditch over to Tadpole Canyon Creek. This old canal was built in 1882 but never finished. It is now quite overgrown, but you can still hike along it. There are some difficult spots including one rock slide which requires going up and around, through the middle of the burned area from the 2008 fire. I may be imagining things, but it seems the route up through here is more defined now. Have many of my followers been up that way in the past year? At the top of the ridge though, the trail becomes very indistinct again over to the creek. It seemed to me that the creek had about as much or less flow than when I was here last June. In fact, I could have sworn that I needed to get my feet wet to cross the creek last year, but this year it was an easy rock hop. This would mean bad things for the waterfall, but it seems I just had a bad memory (no surprise there). I made my way across the creek, then up the ridge on the other side, meander through manzanita brush, and finally down to the waterfall viewpoint. Now I could finally see the waterfall was flowing better. Not a lot better, but better nonetheless. And it was not foggy! I also was able to finally measure the graceful beast (186 ft. high if you care). I took my photos and packed it back up the mountain. I would have liked to explore further here, but I had things to do, places to be. My intent was to go find a second waterfall further along the Iowa Hill Ditch. I was not sure but I thought that maybe I might be able to get to it before the sun got on it. It was going to be close, so I needed to get with it and not dilly dally at Tadpole Canyon.

I climbed back up to the Ditch and started hiking east. It was overgrown with brush, but it was manageable. The late Russell Towle had mentioned an impassable Big Brush along here somewhere, but I never saw this. I’m not sure where he was thinking this was, but I never encountered anything that was remotely impassable. I did encounter another cliffy section, which required me to descend off trail to the bottom of the cliff, across unstable rocks, then back up to the Ditch. And continue along the Ditch. The Ditch ends at the creek. Actually it ends slightly before the creek. It looked a bit sketchy to continue from there, so I descended downhill until I could get a look at the waterfall. It was not a waterfall. I was really hoping this was a straight plunge off the cliffs, but instead it was just a series of small cascades on an unnamed creek that was not flowing very well. Certainly not worthy of mention on waterfallswest.com. But I could not see the top of it, it was hidden behind the rocks above me. I climbed back up the hill to the trail, then examined the sketchy traverse. One step was going to be a doozy, but I thought I could manage it. I came all this way, I had to at least see what the top part of this creek looked like. Hold breath. Take step. Made it across. Now I was able to make it down to the creekside easily. I still could not see behind those rocks. I crossed the creek. Looked up. Voila. Amazing waterfall found! It was a straight drop off the cliffs after all, 93 ft. high, and very very pretty. It was still in shade also, thank the Lord. Photographing this beauty, however, was going to be a big problem. It is a very steep bank on the other side of the creek, and I had to scramble up this steep bank to get a good look at the falls. There was a ledge not far up, and I shot the falls from a distance here. After this, I wondered if I could get right up to the base of the falls. I decided to try. It was crazy. Straight up the side of the mountain, very steep, slipping and sliding, and scrambling on all fours. I finally made it up to the base of the cliff and walked along it over to the waterfall and was able to get down right at the base of the falls. It was beautiful, but it was not worth all that effort! I think also the angle was too severe to photograph, but I did take some shots, and I will be posting them here very soon. Alrighty then, time to go back down the mountain. One look from the top and I said “HOLY SHUBUMBA!!!” (or something like that). I am going to die! You don’t really realize how steep something is until you look down on it from above. I carefully and slowly made my way back down the mountain, crossed the creek, over the sketchy section, and finally had my feet planted firmly back on the Iowa Hill Ditch. Whew. Now I still had to hike back to Beacroft trailhead, and I was already completely spent. I only hiked 8 miles this day, but all the scrambling up and down mountain sides totally wiped me out, especially that last one up to the base of the waterfall. Well, I had to go back though if I wanted to avoid becoming bear food. I took my time on the hike back, taking it as easy as I could. Finally got back to the car, and was starving. I did not bring my lunch because I thought this was going to be a much quicker and easier hike. I managed to hold myself together until I got back to Foresthill where I stopped to refuel (my body). Then on the drive back from Foresthill to Auburn, in one second my great morning was practically ruined, when I saw a dead bear on the side of the road. Ugh! I hate seeing dead animals, but especially bears, which are my favorite animal. There are so few of them in California too, and this seems so pointless. The dufus that hit him was most likely speeding and it is an accident easily avoided (I don’t know that but it is probably true). Argh, argh argh! Anyway, other than that one last incident I did really have a great day in the American River Canyon.

I did it. I dragged myself out of the house on Sunday afternoon to go hiking. And I am glad.

I was initially intending to hike back to New York Canyon Falls (which of course, is my favorite CA waterfall). However, I could not drive as far on Foresthill Rd as I wanted. I could only drive as far as the bottom of Canada Hill, at which point I was stopped by intimidating snow mounds on the road that were stubbornly refusing to melt. I could have hiked from there and I would have made it to NYC for sure, but it would have made for a 10 mile round trip hike (which is more than I wanted to do), plus I would have been hiking back in the dark for sure (which I also didn’t really want to do). I could have done it though. Getting into NYC in mid-April would have been pretty sweet. How well would it have been flowing, though?

So anyway … I decided to go to a different spot. West New York Canyon. In particular, Upper West New York Canyon. You can see this waterfall in the distance from Canada Hill Ridge (this is the ridge that you go down from the top of Canada Hill to get to Upper New York Canyon Falls). From there it looks like a pretty tough waterfall to get to. Indeed, looking at the topo maps, it seems there are cliffs all around the waterfall, with sheer dropoffs of thousands of feet (kidding). I did not think it would be possible to get there, but I decided to go for it anyway. It is a much shorter hike, so I thought I would have plenty of time before dark.

I started hiking on an old dirt road from near Tadpole campground. This campground was wiped out in the forest fire a couple years ago. Indeed I often used the outhouse here before it got burned down (that is probably Too Much Information for you, I suspect). As you walk along this road, you are walking right through the middle of the devastation. It is intense, the devastation. Yet even so, the brush is already growing back. I noticed this clearly as I exited the road and descended down into West New York Canyon. My legs were pretty scratched up by the end of it. They complained loudly in the shower later that night. It is a 1200 ft. descent to the falls. I tried to take a more traversing type of route down, to avoid what I thought would be steep cliffs closer to the falls. It took quite a while to make the descent. I thought I was making a big mistake, it was taking much too long to get down. Far too long. I would be hiking back in the dark for sure. I kept going though, and eventually I traversed my way over to where the waterfall was, wondering if I would be able to get any view of the thing at all. To my delight and surprise, I saw that I could indeed make my way down to a grand viewpoint just below the waterfall. Awesome. It didn’t even require any dangerous cliff scaling. Well, maybe just a tad. The waterfall is 150 ft. high, an amazing sight as it drops and slides its way down the canyon. From here the view is astounding. I could not see the lower waterfalls on the creek, but I could see where they would be. You can see the Chert Knoll far below. This is the location where you can view New York Canyon Falls from up close. I do not think you can see this waterfall from down there, however. The angle must be slightly off. Or something. Of course you can see the Canada Hill Ridge beside you. I could not see Macklin Ridge on the other side of it. For those of you who may not know, Macklin Ridge is the previously unnamed ridge which I named after my good friend Rob Macklin, who was the one who initially suggested we hike along the ridge in order to get to New York Canyon Falls, and it turned out to be the absolute best route to that waterfall. He is such a genius.

The creek in West New York Canyon was not flowing all that impressively. In mid-April it should be gushing with snow melt. There is not much snow left up here, just a little bit left, and the creeks are well past peak flow already. I calculated this year that peak snow melt happened on around April 1 (no fooling). This is the first year I have calculated this so I’m not sure what it was last year, but certainly it is normally much later. When I was here in late April years ago with my brother-in-law, New York Canyon Falls was thundering. This year, right now, based on what I saw in West New York Canyon, I think it is far past its thundering state. Maybe it never even reached thundering state this year.

It is a big ascent back up the canyon. I decided to take a more direct route, i.e. straight up, thinking it would be quicker and shorter than the long traverse I made on the descent. It was indeed quicker and shorter, and perhaps a bit tougher. I wished I had come down this way though, but now I know for next time. Nonetheless, it was a huffer to ascend that 1200 ft. I arrived back at the car well before sunset. I think I would definitely like to return here when the creek is gushing. Maybe next year will be a better one.

It has been somewhat of a disappointing weekend for me thus far. I had big hiking plans, but could not get any sleep on Friday or Saturday nights. Ugh, why does this happen when I want to get up early? I turned off my alarm both days. I am still thinking of going out Sunday afternoon. Maybe I will, maybe I won’t. Should I or shouldn’t I? I don’t really want to be tired for work on Monday either.

On the plus side, Nekoda had a dance performance at the El Dorado County Fair in Placerville on Saturday, and she and the rest of the girls were awesome as usual.

This is the Upper Falls on Canyon Creek. The true Upper Falls. It is hidden away around a corner and the trail does not go by it, and there is no path over to it either, so I suspect that most people go right on by it without even knowing it is there. I would not want to miss this one. It is really a fabulous waterfall, 96 ft. high, and has an interesting fan shape, sliding into another big enticing pool. I climbed out on some huge logs in the middle of the creek to take the shot. They were swaying back and forth in the water, not really good for setting up a tripod on, and I wish I had better light, but this shot turned out ok.

I learned last week that the Bowman Lake Road was already open for the year (as of the end of March). This is shocking. During a normal year, this road is not open until June, sometimes even July. It seems they plowed the road this year so they could work at the dam (they = PG&E), but no doubt it is also due to the very low snowpack this year.

I decided to take advantage of this and drive up to Bowman Lake to see it in rare, early season conditions. I was expecting there to be quite a lot of snow up there, similar or more to what I experienced the previous week in the Trinity Alps. The road was plowed to the dam only, and I expected to have to walk from there through the snow. I brought my snow shoes. I did not need them. There was no snow.

As you may know the Bowman Lake Road is pure torture. I have said this before and I will say it again, the road leaves your bones rattling for days afterwards. The potholes and rocks you have to drive over are ridiculous. It takes forever to drive the five miles to the lake (and even longer if you want to keep going to Faucherie Lake). It is the bumpiest road.

There was some snow along the side of the road as I drove up in certain places. If they had not plowed it, I’m sure the road would still be closed. I find it extremely funny how snow accumulates so much in precise locations and takes forever to melt, but just a few feet further and there is no snow at all. Actually, it is not funny. It is annoying. If the snow on the road in these few spots would melt quicker, the roads would be open so much sooner in the year. I am very happy they plowed it this year.

But as I arrived at the lake, I found almost no snow whatsoever! If you think about this, it is really awful. There should be tons of snow up there right now. Where oh where are you, snow? You could easily drive past the dam to the end of the lake. And so I did. There were some puddles to drive through, but the road is so hard, it does not turn into mud. I drove to the turnoff for Weaver Lake and parked. I could have kept driving up this road too, but I wanted some exercise. Plus, I was sick of driving that darn awful road. My head was rattling off its post.

I knew there was a waterfall at the end of Weaver Lake, and I had not been up here before, so I was hoping to get to it. I really thought it would be very easy to get to it. At the end of the lake are some crazy cliffs, much similar to the cliffs on Table Mountain in Oroville. I continued on the road past the lake, down to the bottom of the cliffs and cross countried it over to the waterfall. This part was easy smeasy. However, as I approached the waterfall, I realized I would not make it. The brush got very thick, far too thick, the sides of the gully got steep, far too steep, there were trees and bushes in the way of the view of the waterfall, far too many. There was no way to get close to this thing for any sort of decent view. And I tried. I tried going through that thick brush. Not a chance. I settled on this shot here, for which I had to stand in the middle of the cold creek to shoot. After this, still desperate for a better view, I went back up the road and on the top of the cliffs, thinking there might be a good view of the falls from above. You just can’t get close enough to the edge of the cliffs to see the waterfall, however. I crossed the creek above the falls, and tried the cliffs on the other side as well. Again, it just did not work. It was close, baby. There was almost a great view of the waterfall from the other side. Almost only counts in horseshoes and hand grenades, however. Not in waterfall hunting. I want to go back here someday and try again. I think there might be another way. There must be another way.

Well, I had to get back. I was due in Grass Valley for my nephew’s birthday party. I had wanted to go on a second hike while up here. Heck, if you’re gonna drive up this bumpiest road, you should at least go on one other hike. But I spent far too much time at Weaver Lake trying to find a view of that waterfall, and now I was out of time. I’ll be back here again, though.

The Canyon Creek hike last weekend was over 14 miles with 2500 foot elevation gain. I started hiking at about 6:30AM and got back to the car at 5:30PM (not all of that time was hiking of course – I like to stop to take pictures!). It takes me two full days to recover from a huge hike like this one. No kidding. When I was young and vibrant (ha!) it probably would take a few hours to recover from a hike like this. Not any more, Theodore. After the hike, I was starving, so I stopped in Weaverville at Round Table Pizza, and ate some wings and most of a medium size pizza, then drove back to Red Bluff. Then the cramps started, as they often do on a big hike. They started in my hands. It is hard to drive when your fingers are cramped and in agony. Later that night as I tried to sleep (and “tried” is the key word), my legs started cramping badly. I could not scream out, or it would wake the kids who were sleeping right next to me. I usually don’t sleep well the night of a big hike, and this was no exception. Next day was Easter, and we went to early church service. It was a pretty busy day, and of course we had to drive back home to Sacramento as well. I had a fairly good sleep Sunday night, but Monday at work I was super tired all day long, and also felt like I still hadn’t caught up on all the calories I burned from the hike, though I kept eating constantly all day. I went to bed early again. Finally on Tuesday, my body seemed to be back to normal. Just in time to get ready for next weekend’s hike. Haha.

As of April 1, we finished this year in California at a dismal 55 percent of normal snowpack in the central Sierra Nevada, 48 percent in the north, and 40 percent in the southern Sierra. We had a very wet November and December, but then three straight months of almost nothing. This is two awful years in a row for us, and this year was perhaps even a bit worse than last year or about the same. We may get some more precipitation in April but it will not impact the snowpack much, if anything. The snow has already started melting, and we will have another very short waterfall season this year in California. The waterfalls are currently flowing well in the mountains, so if you can get out, now is definitely the time to go. It will not last.

This is the Far Upper Canyon Creek Falls, often referred to (incorrectly!) as the Upper Canyon Creek Falls. If you missed the boring rendition about the naming of waterfalls on this creek, and you care, you should read my last blog entry before this one. This is probably the most popular waterfall on this trail because it is the easiest to get to. The waterfall is 65 ft. high and is a real beauty, it was my second favorite waterfall along this trail. It has real grace, splashing down in a horsetail form into a lovely little pool, changing direction and going over another little drop into another drop-dead green pool. The color in the pool was enhanced by the sun. When I arrived here, I had “light clouds” in the air, which were trying to blot out the sun, but mostly unsuccessfully. I wish I had better light when I was here, but the pool would not have been so green if it were more cloudy, so actually this photo turned out just dynamite for me. I ate my lunch here at the base of the falls, trying to gain energy for the hike back down the mountain. I still had to make stops at the three other major waterfalls on the creek on the way down.