Leon Turnbull Photography

It is very early into waterfall season but without a doubt this monster waterfall on Canyon Creek in the Trinity Alps has taken an early and huge lead on being the most spectacular waterfall I have seen this year. Lower Canyon Creek Falls is an incredible cataract, an amazing 142 ft high, and ripe with full snow melt. Wow. Like I said it is early and I’ll probably be going to Yosemite sometime. But still.

Ok so you may be wondering (or maybe not) why I have not visited this popular hiking area in the Trinity Alps before now. There are waterfalls! I must be foolish! Well it’s not like I haven’t tried. The first time I was planning to go years ago I forgot my hiking boots back in Sacramento. Doh. Another time there was a forest fire in progress and the road was closed. Peachy. Other times since then the conditions just have never been right when I’ve been up north. You know me, I like to photograph waterfalls, and this hike is seven miles one way with multiple waterfalls, all of which all get early sun, so it is impossible to get to them in good lighting conditions … unless it is a cloudy day. Finally this Easter weekend the conditions looked right. The forecast was calling for “mostly cloudy” skies with showers in the afternoon. Time to get my boots on. Now just make sure I don’t forget them this time!

I don’t know about you but to me “mostly cloudy” means “almost all clouds” in the sky and very little clear sky … NOT … light scattered clouds with mostly clear blue sky. Humph. Well I started out hiking anyway with trust in God that those clouds would soon come. It reminded me a lot of the Tuolumne River hike I did last year under much the same conditions, and much the same kind of terrain, with the big difference being this hike started off going uphill and finished downhill (which is SO much better then the other way around).

I arrived first at Lower Canyon Creek Falls expecting to find a well traveled trail down to the falls. Surely there must be one, this is a popular waterfall is it not? I searched and searched but could not find anything and now I was well past the waterfall. This was rather weird I thought and did not figure out why there was no trail until much later in the day. I decided to keep plugging on up the trail and attempt to get to this lower falls on my way back down.

I arrived shortly at a surprise waterfall, a 30 footer and stopped to take some photos. After this the trail got much more difficult. Once I hit 4600 ft elevation I was hiking through snow. I had brought my snow shoes but did not need them, nonetheless hiking through snow is tough slogging and this section really wore me down. By the time I arrived at Middle Falls the sun was already out. Where were those clouds? I continued all the way up to the first lake. I had initially wanted to hike much further but I literally could not take any more steps up hill. I was worn out from the hike, most of it through snow, 2500 ft elevation gain, 7 miles one way, and a very heavy pack to boot (carrying those snow shoes all the way and I did not even use them!) Not to mention I still had to stop and photograph all the waterfalls on my way back down the mountain.

There are four major waterfalls on Canyon Creek plus numerous smaller falls including the 30 foot one I mentioned above. If you read Ann Marie Brown you will be very confused. She mentions only three waterfalls in her CA waterfall book. In earlier editions of her book, she completely missed the Lower Falls and thus describes the three uppermost falls as Lower, Middle, Upper. In her latest edition, she does now mention the Lower Falls properly, but she still ends up being very wrong, now she forgets to mention one of the other three waterfalls on the trail (and she still does not describe the true Lower Falls at all). As for that other CA waterfall guidebook, whose authors have clearly not even been to Canyon Creek, they just plainly copied Brown’s information (from her earlier edition), and also missed the boat, not getting the Lower Falls mentioned at all. (Gee I wonder who I’m referring to?) Both books completely neglect the most spectacular waterfall on Canyon Creek. It is really not hard to figure out. The USGS clearly labels the three biggest falls on the creek in the correct locations. The uppermost falls (65 ft high) is not labelled by USGS (though it should be, and it was my second favorite out of the four). So you want the correct info? Go to waterfallswest.com (the site will be updated very soon). I think this is why no good trail exists to the real Lower Falls. No one knew it existed. The vast majority of people hiking this trail are oblivious as they pass by such an amazing waterfall.

By the time I got back down to the Lower Falls I was dead tired. I figured I would have to descend from the main trail about 200 ft off trail down to the falls. I did not think I’d have the energy to get back up. I would be stuck down there forever. I did not want to go down. But I had to. So I did. As I descended I did not get too far before I almost gave up. It was very brushy and I was down on all fours crawling through it. I persevered however and got out into a more open area. I could see the waterfall now and it looked like a dandy. I was going to make it. When I finally got down to the bottom I was in awe. Sheer magnificence. Oh yeah, and by this time in the day the clouds had finally moved in (thanks again, God). It’s sure a darn good thing I decided to go down there. Immediately below this main section is another 30 ft drop. In order to take this photo I was standing at the brink of this lower waterfall. It was just a bit freaky, and it seemed much higher than 30 ft. Two steps to the left and I’d be writing this blog to you from my grave.

Before heading back up I filled my water from the creek. I don’t usually do this but it was an emergency. I was not worried about getting sick. The water was pure snow melt, flowing fast and clear. I was rejuvenated, and I made it back up to the main trail without difficulty (or dying). I still had four miles to hike before I was back at my car. These last miles were not hard but very slow going since I was so tired. Then my knee started hurting, most likely due to the heavy pack I was carrying. My knee was revolting, trying to wrench itself out of my body. That would be just perfect. Only one mile from the trailhead and my knee gives out. I’d have to crawl the last mile. I made it however, and I did not have to crawl. I was sure glad to be done, and then even more glad to get to Weaverville for dinner at Round Table Pizza. It was a great day in the Trinity Alps.

You win some and you lose some in waterfall hunting. This one was a loss but even losers can be interesting.

My topo maps indicated that there “might be” a 40 ft waterfall on Otter Creek near Georgetown. No, I do not mean Silver Falls which I have been to before, this would be a different one. Surely it was worth checking out at least. This is what I love to do. Find new waterfalls. For this one on Otter Creek … I was pretty sure there had to be a decent waterfall down there, the question in my mind was could I get down to it?

I found a trail leading down to the creek. It was only a mile but with 1000 ft elevation loss it was certainly not for sissies. Surprisingly though, it was a pretty good trail, not overgrown, and I saw only one tick. Good so far. Once I got down to Otter Creek I knew the waterfall was about a quarter mile downstream and this is where the fun began (or not). The trail ended abruptly, a full scale bushwhack was in order. There was a bit of a path as it seemed people had gone down there before, but the going was difficult, it was very cliffy, and worst of all was the poison oak, which was overwhelmingly insane.

I came to one point where I had to cross the creek. I took off my boots, put on my “non slippery” water shoes, took one step into the creek and promptly fell onto my butt, getting most of me quite wet, but my camera was safe in my backpack (which is all that matters of course). No one but the squirrels were around to see me spill, and I am sure they were laughing hysterically. Dang those rocks were sure extremely slick. I continued down the creek (more carefully) to the waterfall. The non waterfall. My 40 ft high waterfall was a whopping five feet high. There was another little thing shortly below this one, which was ten feet high. My forty footer was non existent. And I was so sure there would be something good down here. I crossed over the slippery rocks in the creek again so I could get down to photograph the five footer. The ten footer was a bit too difficult to get down to so I skipped it but all in all this was not worth the extreme effort to visit. I’m sure I will be regretting it in a couple days big time when the poison oak rash sets in.

The hike back up was tough but I took it slowly. I had to. My belt buckle broke so keeping my shorts up was not as easy as it might seem. I addition to this, my shorts got totally ripped somehow (probably when I took a dump in that creek). Geez, good thing I wasn’t on the Yosemite Falls trail. The squirrels were having a field day. My GPS also wasn’t functioning very well. My old GPS broke recently and I had to get a new one. I loved that old GPS. It was so reliable and would function great even under heavy tree cover and in deep canyons. So I bought the exact same model this time (though they don’t even make this model anymore). You would think this new one would work exactly the same as the old one. No sir-ee Bob. I lost a signal down in this canyon and it just did not want get a good satellite lock down there. I know my old one would not have had this problem down there. This is really bad news if I can’t rely on my GPS. Ugh. Good thing I was able to find my way out of the canyon without a GPS today. I just followed the chattering squirrels.

After work on Thursday I headed up to Devils Falls to do some exploring. My wife is out of state, so that means I will not be able to go hiking as per usual on the weekend since I will have my daughter with me. My son is up at Nana’s, probably driving her crazy. Speaking of my daughter, Wednesday evening was incredible. She danced at a pre-game show for a Sacramento Kings NBA game (vs. Chicago Bulls). It was so awesome and fun, and the girls were just absolutely fantastic. What an experience for them to dance in a big arena with so many people watching (of course, there weren’t really that many people watching since it was a pre-game show, but there were still quite a few). We were able to watch the dance from the front row on the floor, and I was able to videotape it for posterity. Afterwards, we watched the basketball game (in which the Kings clobbered the Bulls – which is pretty amazing in itself considering they are a last place team), and Nekoda was really into the game, clapping and cheering the entire game. She thoroughly enjoyed her experience, and I am so proud of her.

Anyway back to Devils Falls. You may recall I said earlier I was planning to go back here to look for new waterfalls. Well guess what? I did. And I found one too. The plan was to climb up above Devils Falls and try to find more waterfalls upstream. The very first time I came to Devils Falls, I went up to the top of it, but I did not go very far. I had not been up there since. That was about 100 years ago. This time, I went much further. It is literally a mad scramble up the mountain above Devils Falls. There is a path (actually many paths), because people often go up here, but you are essentially climbing up the mountain on all fours; it is steep, with crumbly ground, and overgrown branches all over the place. The good news is that the fire last year cleared out the brush and poison oak, and the ticks as well. I did get one tick on me, and it totally freaked me out. I did not find it on me until afterwards on the drive home, I felt in my hair and the little bugger came off onto my hand. I slammed on the brakes, got out of the car, brushed it off, then madly shook my hair all over in case there were more. There were no more but for the rest of the night I was constantly feeling my hair for other ticks. Ooh, shivers!

Anyway back to Devils Falls. I scrambled up and came upon this very decent 29 ft. high slide. I did not stop, because I wanted to go much further up the creek and was hoping to find an even bigger and better waterfall. I went quite a ways, but did not find anything bigger. There were plenty of small falls and cascades, but nothing struck my fancy too much. The entire creek drainage, however, is very scenic and with a lot more flow in the creek I think you could definitely find plenty of excellent photographic opportunities. If you like mad scrambling, that is. It is not an easy task to climb up there. I went back down to this lower slide and found a spot to photograph it. It was starting to get dark so I quickly took my shots then scuttled back down the mountain to the car. It was a great evening at Devils Falls.

Here is a vertical shot of Canyon Creek Falls. There was very little room to photograph this waterfall. I was standing on a rock outcropping in the middle of the creek, but I could not move anywhere to the left or right because I would have been stepping right into a very deep pool. There was no where else to stand but here, leaving little room for any variety in the way of compositions.

Still looking for more rain this year. My guy says it is still looking good for end of this month, but geez it sure seems like spring now. And that usually means we are done and over for the year. We are now well into the third straight month with little rain. It is depressing!

I set my clock ahead an hour on Friday night. One day early. All part of my plan for the weekend. Actually, Thursday would have even been better, but of course I had to work on Friday, so I couldn’t do it then. I also went to bed a little earlier than usual on Friday night, so I really only lost half an hour. By the end of the day on Saturday, I am fully adjusted to the new time, so that will make getting up to go hiking on Sunday morning very easy, and with sunrise an hour later now, I will get an extra hour of sleep back as well. Does that make any sense at all to anyone but myself? P.S. Don’t tell my pastor I might be skipping church on Sunday.

I drove up to Foresthill on Saturday morning, anxious to get a good hike in with my brand new hiking boots. They would certainly end up getting a good workout. I had a great plan, but this time around, the plan did not come together. I came to a locked gate, private property, and an ominous sign that said: no “warning” shots will be fired. Ah ok, I guess we all know what that implies. I will definitely not be hiking here. Time to implement Plan B.

Plan B was to hike down into Snyder Canyon. I found this waterfall when I was hiking to Blind Canyon last year. I could hear the waterfall from the road, but could I get down to it? It was very steep. Like practically vertical steep. At least that is what I remembered from my nightmares. When I arrived this weekend, and peered down into the canyon, I saw steep but it was not vertical steep. It was definitely do-able, but I could not see all the way down to the creek though, and it looked quite brushy down there. It was going to be a challenge but Leon the Waterfall Hunter was ready. Down I went. Weeeeeeeeeee ahhhhhh…..

The first part was not so hard getting down (getting back up was another story, however). I could not see any waterfall, but I could hear the creek, and I let my ears do the walking towards the loudest part of the creek. I knew there was a waterfall down there, but I was not sure exactly where on the creek it would be. Once I got down to the trees, I found a bit of a path, and it led me through most of the brushy-ness. Obviously people had been down here before. That in itself is a bit shocking. This canyon just seems too steep and remote, and who the heck would think there would be a waterfall down here anyway (besides me). There was a heckuva lot of poison oak down closer to the creek as well, and I eventually gave up trying to avoid it. Here’s hoping I don’t get the itch.

I could finally see the creek and a waterfall, and I made my way down to it. The last step was a doozy, I had to jump down from a rock to the creek level. Once down I turned around. Umm, how am I going to climb back up that rock? Oh well, let’s worry about that after I take pictures shall I? The waterfall is not a photogenic one, and it was not flowing very great, even after some recent rain we just had. This was the best view I could find, and I had to climb up a slippery rock to get to this spot, then slide back down the rock afterwards, all with camera and tripod in hand.

Now about climbing back up that other rock? There was just no way I could do it. I would be stuck down here forever. I looked around for another possibility, and I found one, managing to hook my rope around a tree branch and hoist my way back up the drop-off. It was a bit on the crazy side of things but it worked. Fortunately my wife will probably not read this because she is currently in Alaska. (don’t anyone tell her, ok) Haha. Back up through the poison oak, and up the very steep mountain. I was beat, but I made it. I can’t imagine I will ever be back down in this canyon, it is just too steep and difficult, but ask me again in a year, and I might give a different answer. I do think there are other waterfalls down there.