Leon Turnbull Photography

When we were at Monterey a couple weeks ago, we saw this very cute baby sea otter and its mama in the water very close to the dock at around sunset. The baby made such a cute little squeaking sound. I was able to get some great closeup shots of it until my camera battery finally died (I had left the backup back in the car), but no matter I was very happy. There was also a sea lion cruising around them at this moment trying to cash in on some free crab, but the mama and baby are watching it closely.

After my last day of work at my old job and getting off early, I drove back up to Fuller Lake in order to get back to Fordyce Falls. My plan was to bike the trail this time in hopes of saving a lot of time and in hopes of it being much easier. It is 4 miles one way, and it took me about 1.5 hours to hike it. When I hiked it, the terrain seemed quite bike-able, except for a couple big hills, and I know other people frequently bike this trail. I figured biking to the falls would take 45 minutes max. I could get there in good time, shoot both of the waterfalls, and be back at the car by dark. Easily.

So how long do you think it actually took me to bike to the falls? It took 1.5 hours, essentially the exact amount of time to hike it. It was also very difficult and much harder; it would have been easier to hike the trail. How is this even possible? Well, the terrain is actually extremely technical (which is not something I figured it would be, after hiking it). I was constantly having to get off the bike and walk sections, due to steepness, or very rocky terrain, or other obstacles. There were certainly long sections where I could go at a good fast clip, but the technical sections slowed me down way too much and too often.

Wow, when I got to Fordyce Falls I realized I had not much time to shoot the waterfalls if I wanted to get back to the car before dark. I certainly had no time to shoot both waterfalls. I decided to skip the lower Split Falls, and just shoot the upper Fordyce Falls. I waited until the waterfall got into the shade at 6:45PM, took my shot, then quickly packed up my bike and headed back at 6:50PM. It seemed to take longer to bike back and it was well past dark when I arrived back at the car. Fortunately I had a headlamp, but I did not get back to the car until about 8:15AM. I was dog tired but I made it.

Just a short distance above stunning McWay Falls lies a lovely little tiered waterfall which I call Upper McWay Falls. It is fairly easy to get to and flows on the same creek as the lower McWay Falls. In other words, it also flows year-round.

After shooting McWay Falls at sunrise, I took the short hike up to the upper falls. It is an easy hike to the bottom of the 3 tiered waterfall, but it is a bit tricky scrambling up to the upper tier, which is the prettiest section. It drops 32 ft. into a hidden alcove. It reminds me a lot of Hole In The Wall Falls in the Columbia River Gorge, Oregon because of how it curves around inside the alcove. I spent quite a lot of time here shooting this one, and I may or may not have removed a lot of ugly logs and debris that may or may not have been at the base of the waterfall. I can’t really remember. Photographers have a very short memory when it comes to things like that.

Anyhow, it was a fun morning. I grabbed some coffee in Big Sur on my way back to Monterey to meet my family, and we spent the rest of the day enjoying the beach, playgrounds, and touring the Carmel mission (which was quite interesting), and then enjoying a big pizza dinner, followed by a walk on the fisherman’s wharf where we saw a cute baby sea otter from up close.

With my new job starting this week we decided to make a quick trip over to the ocean at Monterey Bay to celebrate the new job and get a last vacation before the new job started.

We went over on Saturday morning and spent the day at the aquarium. Lots of fun of course for the kiddos. Lots of fun for me too because we saw quite a lot of wildlife this trip: dolphins, seals, sea lions, sea otters (including a very cute baby). The next morning I got up super early to drive down to McWay Falls. It is the only waterfall flowing at the coast right now so I wanted to get down to see it even though I have been here many times before and already have good photos of it. I know this is a sunset place not a sunrise place but this was the only time I had to go there. I wanted to do something a bit different here so I decided to arrive well before sunrise and try photographing the waterfall in the pre-dawn hour. This was my result. The exposure is F/8, 30 seconds, and was taken 25 minutes before sunrise. It was fun being at the overlook in the dark and being the only one there. It is such an amazing place. There were no clouds and no interesting sunrise but I did hike up to the upper falls before going back to the hotel to meet up with the family.

I did see some writing on the beach made by some idiots who went down there in recent days. It is not legal to go down to the beach here. The cliffs are crumbly and delicate and even one person going down would cause a lot of environmental damage. I do not think it would be too difficult, however, to get down. I would never do it but I do (rather often) think about doing it. I think though that if I ever did go down here it would forever ruin the location for me afterwards. From the overlook the waterfall and beach seem so pristine, so stunning, and so out of reach. It would not be so after going down to it.

One more from Palisade Falls. To get to this spot, you need to scramble down to the river from the viewpoint, then walk along the rock edge to get to an outcropping with this view of the falls. It required me to take one step into the water. It was not difficult, but would have been impossible to do earlier in the summer when the river is higher. That is one good thing about the low flow in the river, because this was a sweet spot to get to.

In other news, I start my new job next Monday. Yay. What does this mean to me? No more lousy commute. Much better pay. I am really looking forward to it, and this opportunity just fell right into my lap, after much prayer. Clearly this was all God’s doing. He is so good.