Leon Turnbull Photography

I slept absolutely awful the first night in Yosemite. I was sleeping in my SUV not in a tent. I was very wired, looking up at every light or sound in the campground, and the worst of it was that my back was hurting from how I was laying in the vehicle and there was nothing I could do to make it better. I was seriously thinking that I should just drive home the next day. Another night in the car would be perhaps unbearable. I wanted to go home the next day but I also wanted to see all the waterfalls on my agenda that I was planning to see. Perhaps I could do both and just drive home late the next day. But how would my back feel in the morning?

The back was not great in the morning but I got up early after very little sleep and drove to the trailhead at Alder Creek Falls. I had not been to this waterfall yet and it is not a particularly easy hike either, climbing 1000 ft up in a four mile one way hike to the falls. Most of that 1000 ft is in the first mile. You are climbing amongst burnt trees left from a forest fire that went through here four years ago. Although the general public view of fires are that they are bad, in fact they are good if not unnaturally suppressed by man. I especially like how the fires clear out the thick brush on the forest floor which normally makes it impossible to bush whack to hard to reach waterfalls. No bush whacking is required for Alder Creek Falls however. My back held up on the steep hike up the mountain after which the terrain was much easier on the remaining three miles over to the falls. There was still some snow at the top (5800ft) which I had to walk through but much less than I anticipated. Most of it was all melted.

The viewpoint of the waterfall is quite a nice one from the trail overlooking the waterfall. I was surprised though. Firstly, about the height. It is listed commonly as a 250 ft. high waterfall, yet it was very clear to my eye that it was no where near that height. More like around 100 ft. high or so. Indeed, my measurement of the falls confirmed the height of the falls was 87 ft. Secondly, from all I had read it was clearly indicated that it was not possible to get down to the bottom of the falls. Yet it seemed that it was a possibility after all. It would be a difficult descent for sure, but definitely do-able (maybe – at the very least you could get down closer to it). Anyway I did not try it this time. I wanted to get back down to my vehicle quickly. Why? I had a lot of other destinations to visit that day still. I was concerned about my back as it would be a difficult descent. And stupidly, I was worried about a bear breaking into my vehicle cuz I had left food in it. I got back to my car and no bear had broken into it.

But as I sat in my car munching on a snack a very cool thing happened. About 8 or 9 deer came down to the road and then five of them (including a baby) crossed the road and came right up to my car. They could see me looking at them but did not mind me so close as they picked at food in the dirt. I don’t know what they would be eating in the dirt. I crawled into the back of my car to get my camera, changed lenses, then went out and started taking photos of them from the front of my car. I was only about 10 or 15 ft away from them. They stayed there a long time not minding me. Finally some other cars stopped as well and I no longer had them to myself. Eventually they had enough and left reluctantly. It was a pretty cool experience and one I would not have had I went down to the bottom of the falls, so I think God was the one who put it in my heart to get back down to the car quickly. Also, it is a story that my daughter Nekoda really would like as she loves deer and told me a long time ago she wanted me to take a picture of a baby deer. I don’t normally take photos of deer as they are so common but this was a very special case which I think happened as much for Nekoda as for me.

Whirlwind weekend Part II. Yosemite Valley.

The other waterfall I wanted to see this evening in Yosemite Valley was of course Bridalveil Falls. It was almost sunset time. The evening started out as very cloudy and overcast, but by sunset time, all the clouds in the valley had disappeared, so it was not much of a sunset, unfortunately. But there was still some nice light on the cliffs above Bridalveil Falls. I stopped at Valley View instead of Tunnel View. Although the latter is a more spectacular vista I rarely stop there as I have a strong aversion to spending my evening battling tripod legs with 50 other photographers. There is always much fewer people at Valley View. There were perhaps ten other people there but I found a good spot to setup and shoot before the light disappeared from the cliffs. Before it got too dark I ran up to the base of Bridalveil to experience more drenching, then drove on to my campsite in the dark.

Whirlwind weekend part I. Yosemite Valley.

My plan was ambitious. There are (or were) four different places I want to get to this spring, all of which require multiple days of travel or hiking. I was hoping to get to two out of the four on this one weekend. Two birds killed with one stone. First up was Yosemite Valley. With the huge snow pack melting I knew the waterfalls in Yosemite would be huge. Tremendous. Incredible. Amazing. Gargantuan. You name it. I absolutely needed to get back to my favorite park this spring.

So right after work on Friday I drove down south. The traffic was awful just getting out of Sacramento even though I left very early. I did not have much time to spend in the valley but I wanted to definitely get some Quality Time with Yosemite Falls, one of my favorite waterfalls on Earth and to be in the park for sunset.

I finally arrived in the valley around 6:30pm and went straight to the lower falls. All the waterfalls in the park were flowing tremendously. I even saw some dropping off cliffs that I had never seen before. These ones are not even named. I wish I had more time in the valley but that was not to be for this trip. Even with the tremendous flow they say the falls have not reached peak flow yet. Hard to believe any more water could be coming off Yosemite Falls. The creeks and Merced River were already quite full. Too much more and there will certainly be flooding in the valley.

I went up to my favorite place to view the falls, away from the viewing area where everyone else stops. I think more people know about this  “semi secret” place now as the path seems more traveled but I had the waterfall to myself this evening, just the way I like it. I found a spot where I could see the upper falls as well as the lower falls and stayed there for as long as I possibly could bear. I was getting completely drenched from the spray. To me, this is the ONLY way to truly experience Yosemite Falls. Finally, like a wet dog, I went back down the trail, getting strange looks from people wondering if I went swimming in Yosemite Creek, and found this viewing area back away from the falls and spray, where I could take a photo of this magnificent waterfall. I was looking for a different view of the falls than the normal ones, hoping to find a spot with Yosemite Creek in the foreground. I found this one.

More to come.

This is a new waterfall I found a couple weeks ago on my outing to Mill Creek Falls. I had no idea this waterfall was here, but saw it as I hiked down the road. After visiting Mill Creek Falls, I went down to this one on the way back. It was harder than it seemed. No trails went down to it, and the going was quite brushy, especially as I got close to the creek. Nonetheless, there was a bit of a path, and I pushed through the brush to get down to the waterfall. It is a fairly nice waterfall, 41 ft. high, though a good viewpoint of it was hard to come by.

I am looking forward to this weekend, as I am making a whirlwind trip to Yosemite. The waterfalls down there should be smokin. And I am hoping to get to quite a few new ones that I have not been to before as well. It  will be a fun and a very fast trip.

http://waterfallswest.com/waterfall.php?id=1654

This morning I went on a hike back up on Ice House Rd. This is my third time already up there on Ice House this spring, and I plan to be going up there many more times. It is one of my favorite hiking areas in the greater Sacramento area. There are so many areas to explore, and many waterfalls to find. This is what I was doing this morning: exploring to find new waterfalls. And I found one indeed. But it was certainly a difficult one.

When I was up at Jay Bird a couple weeks ago, I had initially planned to explore into Round Tent Canyon. But there was still too much snow at the top of the canyon. I could have snowshoed in, but it would have been a difficult 9 mile snowshoe hike, and I did not want to do that at the time. I returned here this morning, two weeks later, and most of the snow was gone! I was able to drive in on the road a half mile, but then got stopped by a snow mound. I would have to hike the rest of the way, but that was fine. I would not need snowshoes, so it would not be too difficult. At least the first part of the hike was not difficult, anyway. It was certainly a pleasant hike along the road paralleling Round Tent Canyon. The creek, starting out as a small little stream, picked up speed as it continued on, getting more water along the way from side streams and melting snow. The steepness of the canyon also picked up steam along the way, getting steeper and steeper, and much steeper. I was definitely wondering if I would be able to get anywhere near a waterfall, if indeed there was even one.

I had no idea, really, if there was a waterfall in Round Tent Canyon. After examining my topo maps, it looked like there “might be” a 50 foot high waterfall in there somewhere, at a certain spot. As I got down to that certain spot, though, it required getting off the nice mellow road, and getting down and dirty in the midst of the forest. The terrain was now very brushy, very steep, and very difficult. I had really hoped that the terrain would not be so brushy, as I had quite a ways to go still, down to the waterfall. No such luck on that one. I persevered however, and came down to a spot which was close to where I anticipated a waterfall to be, and found just a small 20 foot waterfall. I looked downstream, and saw the terrain seemingly flatten out, so this must be the only waterfall down here after all.

I made my way down the steep mountain to try to get to the bottom of this 20 footer. It was as messy as anything I have ever seen. Huge trees fallen all over the place at the base of the waterfall. There was no way I could get up to it to take a photo. It looked though, that I might be able to get up to it if I crossed the creek. I did not bring my water shoes, and I really did not want to do this, so I debated amongst myself, and finally decided that I should cross since I came all this way and this was the only waterfall down here. After crossing, I found that I was able to get up to the falls, but I was too low! I could only see the bottom 10 ft. section, and could not see the top of the falls from this spot. There was no other viewpoint. I crawled under the huge logs spanning across the creek, which is something that kinda freaks me out. What if the logs all of a sudden collapse on top of me? I have the same issue when driving and I get stopped under an overpass or something. What if there is an earthquake when I am under there? Anyway, I buckled up my courage and crawled under there to take a photo anyway. The logs did not collapse, and there was no earthquake.

So after all that shenanigans, I crossed back over the creek and started my climb up the mountain. But fortunately, I took a closer look at my map, and I realized that I was not really even close to where I had thought the waterfall should be. I had better continue on downstream to see if there might be yet another waterfall down there. When would I ever be back in this canyon? Never. So more difficult cross country and bushwhacking brought me down to yes, the 50 ft. high waterfall that I anticipated getting to in the first place. Indeed I measured it to be exactly 50 ft. high, though it looked to my eye that it was actually quite higher than that. It was another steep descent down the mountain, and I could not get all the way down to the bottom due to a sheer dropoff, but I crawled up on a rock on the side of the cliff, and was able to take this photo of it. Getting any closer or a better angle would have been far too dangerous.

After that it was just a matter of climbing back out of the canyon and back to the road. It was difficult and it took awhile, but I finally made it back to the road. Thanks to my GPS that works so well under tree cover, it would have been almost impossible to find my way back otherwise. Maybe. Once back on the road, I made the long, slow, (and easy) journey back to my vehicle parked near Ice House Rd. It was a crazy day, but I was so pleased that I found this new waterfall deep within Eldorado National Forest.

More info on Round Tent Canyon Falls:
http://www.waterfallswest.com/waterfall.php?id=1663