Leon Turnbull Photography

In my strange mind waterfall season begins after the first storm of the winter. That storm happened this week, mid October. The mountains in the Tahoe area received anywhere from 2 to 3 feet of snow from this storm, not a bad start to the year as this is much earlier than usual for our first storm. So all this means that waterfall season has begun! To celebrate, I headed over to Devils Falls after work on Wednesday. I was anticipating the area would have had much more rain than they actually received on Wednesday so I’m not really sure what effect the rain had in the creek’s flow, but it was pretty low. I tried for a different view of the falls from the left side this time. After shooting this waterfall I went down to Shirttail Falls but it was almost dark when I got down there and I was not happy with my photo so I’m not sure if I’ll share it. That creek had low flow as well. I was also freaked about that ledge and I did not venture as far out on it as I have done in the past. There is nothing to hold onto and the ground was wet and potentially slippery (with a huge dropoff). I think I’m also getting more wimpy in my old age. Haha.

The other main reason for going to Devils Falls was to check out the effects of the forest fire that happened here in the summer. It began very near Devils Falls, however I had heard that the lovely greenery around Devils Falls was not touched by the fire at all. Well it is true that the falls did not seem to get burned but everything around it on all sides sure did. Indeed it is very strange that Devils Falls itself was untouched. The scourge from the fire can be seen from Yankee Jim bridge all the way down the North Fork on the east side of the river as far as I could see. Indian Creek Falls was very likely burned. Shirttail Creek Falls was definitely burned and even the south side of Shirttail Creek was burned. I did not venture up to Mexican Gulch Falls as it was dark (but now that I’m thinking about it, I realize I should have). It was definitely very interesting to see the area and the fire’s effects. It also seemed that the road down to the falls is getting worse, which may or may not have anything to do with the fire. It seems narrower and more eroded than ever before. It is probably just my imagination.

This past weekend our family went up north to visit the in-laws to celebrate a couple birthdays in the family. It was definitely nice to get away from home for a bit. On Saturday, I went out hiking with my son, Jadon, to this waterfall in Lassen National Forest, called Lower Deer Creek Falls. I have been here before, and although I tried, I could not really get any different kind of photo from here. The creek was flowing a bit too strong to get across it, but I did get into the middle of the stream as far as I could to take this photo. As usual, it was extremely c-c-c-c-c-old. However, after standing in the stream for awhile, my feet got numb enough such that I did not even notice the cold. haha.

Anyway, though I have been here before, I chose this spot again for a couple reasons. One, I wanted an easy enough hike that I could take Jadon on. Second, it was on the way to Chico where we were having lunch with the family afterwards, so it made perfect sense to go here. Third, I was hoping to see the California gray wolf.

California has one wolf as of right now (despite some peoples’ thoughts that there are plenty more), and currently it has been hanging out in western Plumas and eastern Tehama counties for the past couple months or so. This kind of thing interests me a lot, and I have been following its trackings on the Dept of Fish and Game website. They do not tell you exactly where it is, just a vague general area (which of course makes a lot of sense – you would not want any bad people out trying to find it to harm it, for example). I would have loved to have seen the wolf on an early morning hike, but of course the general area of eastern Tehama county is a huge area, and the odds of seeing it on this morning would be astronomical. You would have much better luck finding a needle in a haystack, literally. Indeed it would have been a miracle to see one. Well, I did pray for that miracle. I think the trouble is that my prayers were canceled out by my sons’ prayers, because he was praying that we would NOT see a wolf. And I am quite sure that God likes him much more than me. haha! Ah well, we did not see the wolf of course, but we sure did have a very nice hike together, along with our old dog, Kaya, who also made the trek with us, and I think she probably enjoyed it the best of all of us.

In other news, we are getting our first snow of the year here. Whoopie! It looks like we’ll get about 2 feet of snow or more in the mountains this week. That is pretty amazing for October. Here’s to a great winter (I hope!).

This is the third waterfall in Lundy Canyon. It is 30 ft. high, and one of my favorites in this canyon. I took a bit too much time here though. The fourth waterfall is immediately above this one, and by the time I was done shooting this waterfall, the fourth one was already in the sun. Too late to photograph it. If I was thinking properly I would have shot the upper one first, then came back down to this one. It was too early in the morning to think properly. Ah well, c’est la vie.

The bit of fall color on the left here was really nice, though it was past peak for color, and I really liked the little swirly in the foreground, so I used a nice long exposure to bring it out prominently. The log across the middle of the falls I did not like, and it was not there last time I was here, but it seemed like it would be far too much effort to try to get it out of there, so I left it for nature to remove on its own will.

I decided to sleep in this weekend instead of going out hiking. I was planning a hike to see some fall colors (no waterfalls), but just felt more like staying home with the family. I probably should have gone out hiking because the Fall colors will not last much longer. This shot is from Lundy Canyon last weekend.

After shooting the waterfall from the overlook, I walked over to the base of the falls. There was a path, and it was a fairly easy trek down to it. The other early bird couple I saw at the trailhead followed me down to the falls as well, surprisingly because although there is a path, it does involve a bit of whacking through the bushes.

I was hoping to find a composition of the waterfall with fall colors but there was not really a lot of color around close to the falls. My favorite composition was this one, which doesn’t really have too much color in it at all, but it is a pretty view. This would be quite a great spot to be if the waterfall was gushing, though you would definitely get quite wet trying to get there.

Here is a closer and more intimate view of Lundy Canyon Falls from the overlook. I have lots more pictures from Lundy to process, but I have been busy this week, so I haven’t gotten to them yet.

In other news, I have just started biking to work this week. It takes about 25 minutes one way, it is only 3.5 miles from my house to work. I am excited about this so far, and I felt great the first day of doing this. If I can do this every day, I am going to get in great shape over this fall and winter, and I’ll be ready to get out in the spring to do some serious hiking. Yeah.