Leon Turnbull Photography

I went back to Slab Creek Reservoir this morning to try to get up close to Iowa Canyon Falls. It was not my first choice for hiking, but my first idea for a hike could not be done because it turned out to be on private property. So plan B it was, back to Slab Creek.

It was a BRRRRRRR …. very cold morning, the temps were below zero, there was ice on the road, and even snow in Placerville in some spots from the miniscule amount of precipitation we received a couple days ago. I am still hopeful for a big change to the current weather pattern by middle of February. So anyway, here I am down at the bottom of Iowa Canyon, trying to figure out how to get up close to this waterfall. The prickly brush lining the creek bed taunts me saying, yeah come on man, you can do it, we won’t hurt you, hee hee. Well I know better than to listen to those lies. It was wading up the creek bed I knew was the only way to go. Did I mention that it was a cold morning? The bridge over the creek was ice, I could slide the whole way across. Too bad I wasn’t younger, I might have had fun doing that instead of worrying about breaking my neck. I rolled up my pants and started up the creek (though first a bit through some of that prickly brush was a necessity – doh!). The creek was freezing. Yikes. The going was not too difficult however. I made it up to the base of the waterfall in short order. The last pool was a bit deep, coming up to my knees. Did I say it was cold? My feet were starting to get a bit numb, then I realized the only way to photograph this sucker would be standing in the middle of that freezing water.

I always attempt to photograph my waterfalls as best as I possibly can. That means being there in good lighting conditions, and just as important, finding the best composition that can be safely had. This is OFTEN not possible at waterfall locations. Some people have recently mentioned to me things like, this photo would be much better if not centered, or it would be better if you moved over to one side a bit, or it would be better if you did this or that. These people have never been to these waterfall locations, and do not realize those things are not even remotely possible. If I move over, I will fall off the cliff and die! There is one and only one composition of this waterfall, so it must be centered in the frame! Wake up and smell the coffee. Photographing waterfalls is often times much more difficult compared to other easy-to-get-to-within-a-very-short-walk-from-your-car general landscape scenes. Ok, end rant.

This waterfall is a perfect example. The angle from the base of the falls was severe. I could not get any closer to photograph due to the extreme mist from the falls, plus the angle was no good. If I moved to the left here, I would not be able to include the upper tier of the falls, and there would be too many branches in the way. If I moved to the right (which I would have liked to do), then that big rock would have obscured too much of the waterfall, plus I would have been standing up to my waist in a deep pool. This was the best possible composition, and it may not be a great angle, but it was the only one available.

There was only one problem with this. I had to stand in the creek to get this photograph. The freezing cold creek. So that is exactly what I did. I think I would have been fine if I did not have to stand in the creek to photograph. But by the time I was done (and believe me, I did not take very many photos), my feet were completely numb. Really bad. I don’t remember the last time my feet were so cold, probably not since skiing when I was a kid. I took my water shoes off and sat down on a rock, drying them with my towel, and trying to get some feeling back in my toes. I sat there about 20 minutes or so, and my feet were still numb;  I was getting a little bit of feeling back, but still they were very cold. I put my water shoes back on, now having to wade back down the creek, trying to stay out of the water as much as possible. Back at the bridge and walked quickly back to the car where I promptly turned on the heat and sat for another 20 minutes or so, trying to get my feet warm from the heater. My next purchase will be: waders.

It is a very long drive down from Monterey to Salmon Creek Falls. I have been down there a few times now, and it always takes much longer than I think it will. You would think I’d have learned by now. I have to say I hate that highway. All the twists and turns just drive me psycho by the end of the day. It is a beautiful drive I suppose. Mostly though I wouldn’t know about that because I have my eyes on the road all the time, going bonkers. Ah well.

I was not planning to go to this waterfall, actually. I wanted to go to a couple waterfalls upstream from this one. Yes there is indeed an Upper Salmon Creek Falls. However things did not turn out as planned of course. Firstly, Tara’s knee was on the fritz again from the hike the previous day. I wanted her to come with me on this hike, but she could not. She insisted it was ok for her to wait in the car while I hiked. I hesitated. But she insisted again. And again. Well, ok then … I started up the trail but I did not get very far. The trail seemed to be going in completely the wrong direction from my map, up and far away from the creek. This could not possibly be the right way! I went back and tried a different route, going up beside the top of the lower falls, however that route eventually just fizzled out and it got too difficult to continue. Well I did not feel right about going on a very long hike anyway so I just went back and photographed this lower falls again. As I found out later, the first route was the correct one after all, but my map was wrong. It was completely my fault. Ugh. I will know better next time! If I can brave that crazy drive one more time, that is.

Since we were all the way down the coast we continued further down to Hearst Castle, a place I had never been to before. It definitely was a very interesting place, and I do recommend going if you have not been there. It was an extremely hot day; it is supposed to be winter, but it felt like summer. It was totally nuts. Up at the castle, however (1000 ft. higher in elevation), it was very chilly (and of course I left my jacket back in the car, brilliant!). I was hoping to see one of the zebras that run freely on their land, but instead we saw some of the very interesting aoudads (barbary sheep). The dumb bus driver only stopped for a grand total of three seconds to let us see them (and try to photograph them in that time). Geez is it really that important to keep to your stupid timing schedule so Alex Trebec doesn’t get off track on your useless voice audio (if you have been there, you know what I am talking about). I did get a somewhat ok kinda crappy photo of one of them in those three seconds. If you would like to see it click here.

I like surprises. At least I like surprise waterfalls. Surprise birthday parties not so much. This weekend I went to Slab Creek reservoir again. When I arrived at the parking area, I realized that my GPS was not working at all. I knew I had just charged the batteries so that should not be the issue, nonetheless I tried my backup batteries and they did not work either. What? The GPS was working perfectly fine just a couple days ago, and I know it was not dropped or anything. It just all of a sudden stopped working. Argh! Now it looks like I’m gonna have to buy a new one. Oh that is just peachy. Well, I did not think it was critical to have the GPS today. I wanted to see if I could hike up along the reservoir to Slab Creek inlet. However, I did not get very far. Not even past the dam. The reservoir was full so I definitely had no chance to hike up along the lake as I hoped to do. Strike one.

Next up was to try to get down to North Canyon Falls. This requires crossing the river below the dam. I don’t know why but I find this scary. What if they released water while I was on the wrong side of the river? Never mind that it would not happen. They keep the flow very constant and with no rain there would certainly be no release. Yet that reservoir sure looked very full. And why were the rocks all wet down below the dam if it hadn’t rained in a month? Hmmm. Anyway the river seemed too deep and fast to cross anyhow. Perhaps it could be done at the right spot but I was not motivated. I have to be motivated. Strike two.

I went up to photograph Iowa Canyon Falls next. I wasn’t really into doing this either. I already have a good shot of this falls but I figured I needed to get at least something this morning. There is too much prickly brush along the creek to get right up to the base of the falls (well, perhaps if I was motivated to do it!) so you need to climb up the bank and shoot the waterfall from a distance. I noticed that there were quite a lot of ticks in the grass but I was wary of them and I did not get any on me. Little freakin’ buggers. Ugh.

As I hiked back up to my car afterwards, bummed from a somewhat disappoingting morning thus far, I saw a trail going off the road and back down to the creek. Hmmm, that is interesting. I could see a small waterfall down there and it looked like the trail was going down to it, however another part of the trail continued up the creek, but I could not see what was around the corner. I did not think there would be anything but I decided to just go see anyway. I guess I was motivated enough to do this, despite the ticks and poison oak. I am sure glad I was because what to my surprise when I saw this nice waterfall hiding around the corner! Not a little one either, but a beautiful 33 foot high cascade! Getting up to it was a challenge though. There was a lot of prickly brush to get through. I also saw four old cars down here, two right in the creek and two on the hillside. I’m sure they’ve been there for fifty years or so. You really don’t like your car so much you have to drive it off a cliff into a creek! Crazy. It reminded me of back home in BC when I was a kid, people would drive their old cars off the cliff into the Columbia River. At the time, being so young, I thought this to be very fascinating. Anyway, once down at the creek I had to get my water shoes on and wade up the creek the rest of the way to the falls. This was to avoid all the prickly brush lining the creek bed. It was not hard but it sure was cold! Once at the waterfall I then had to cross a narrow fast moving channel to the other side to get the best viewpoint. Very carefully! Upper Iowa Canyon Falls sure is a marvelous cascade and it turned my morning from BLAH to GREAT. I do love waterfall surprises!

All right so this one is a bit interesting. This little waterfall is not really something that I would include on my website. It is 20 ft. high, but is disqualified because it is not on a named stream. It is just a little side stream and cascade. Yet it does flow for much of the year, even in winter of all the silly things. It is not a named waterfall of course or otherwise documented elsewhere. So I believe that means I have naming rights to it. Hoo Hoo.

Thus my name for this little thing is Gladys Falls, in honour of my mother. It is, after all, in her very backyard (practically). It is found along a new little trail that begins immediately below my mother’s property in Rossland BC. And she is the first one (that I know of) that photographed it. So are there any objections? Good, I thought not.

I went down here with Tara and my dog Kaya one day. Kaya just loves Grandma’s house in Rossland in the winter, she loves the snow and loves going for walks in the snow (even if it is deep!). She did not want to leave with us when we were on our way to drive home, she wanted to stay at Grandma’s house (I am not kidding). She just abhors the car rides now (and of course, it is a 800 mile drive to my mother’s house!). This is not good for her at all. She used to be so much better when she was younger and did not mind the car rides. Not so anymore, and this was the worst year ever for her. She basically just gets so stressed in the car the entire time we are driving, and not much we can do about it. Poor old girl. I think her days of going to Grandma’s house in Rossland are over, unless we can figure out a solution. Maybe give her a couple beers before the drive. Yeah, that’s the ticket.

My wife’s birthday and my birthday are only one day apart. Perfectly convenient, is how I look at it. My wife hates it. Go figure. Mostly it is because I would rather celebrate the birthdays together, go out for dinner just once, have just one cake, etc. Convenience, you know. Well, I have learned by now that won’t work with her. Two dinners, two cakes, two celebrations.

This year my birthday fell on a Saturday. Yeah! That means I had the day all to myself and could go hiking anywhere I liked. Perfect. I suppose I could have picked a better location but I wanted to try to find something new, and that usually means the chances of actually finding something interesting are quite low, but mainly I just wanted to get out on a nice long hike. Actually I think I could have found something if it weren’t for the mud. A giant mud hole in the road prevented me from being able to drive to the trailhead. I was forced to turn around or else sink into oblivion. It is very strange too because we had so little rain this month. Where did all this mud come from? Some sort of wormhole to another dimension? Well not to be outdone just yet, I studied my maps and found a potential alternate route to my desired creek so I decided to try it. The new route found me hiking along logging roads in the direction of the creek I was trying to get to but in the end I was not able to get down to it due to too much brush and too much steepness. Nonetheless I did have a good long hike so I was not unhappy and it ended with a family dinner at Chicago Fire, the best pizza in California. Mmmmmm I would eat there every week if Tara would let me.

Despite the mud shenanigans on Saturday I would not be shut out for waterfalls this weekend. On Sunday we were planning to go to Phantom Falls on my wife’s birthday. She had never been there and has always said she really wanted to go to it so it was not hard to talk her into it on her birthday. We had the kids as well and so it was a great family outing together amongst the killer cows (we all survived) and the elusive salamander (which my wife unsuccessfully tried to chase over a waterfall). I was not expecting too much in flow on Table Mtn but I did think Phantom Falls would be a little better than it was. We sure do need a lot more rain here. Anyway Tara was really happy to finally get out to see this amazing waterfall and the kids did great on the four mile hike. It was a great morning on Table Mountain.