Leon Turnbull Photography

Well we sure got dumped on this weekend. Lots of rain, and plenty of snow in the mountains (and it is still coming). I knew the waterfalls would be going crazy so I really wanted to get out. According to my weather reports, it looked like Monday might be the best day (it only said “showers”, not “rain”). That turned out to be quite wrong to say the least. It rained all morning long on Monday, and I got completely drenched hiking. Darn weather reports, anyway. You probably think I am a bit “squirrelly” to go out hiking in the rain, or if there is a possibility of rain. I suppose you would be right about that.

Anyway, I had a few different thoughts on where to go, but I decided on trying out a couple new ones in the Grass Valley area. This one here is Squirrel Creek Falls. As you can see, the waterfall is flowing pretty crazily. For most of the year this creek is dry, but after a lot of rain it gets going. And we had a lot of rain. And it was sure going.

The hike down to Squirrel Creek is pretty easy. It is actually private property, but it is open to the public for hikers and bikers (awesomeness). The road leads down to the bottom of the falls, where I found a lot of garbage (not so awesome). It is certainly a fabulous waterfall when it is flowing, and I measured it be 62 ft. high, but it was raining hard the entire time I was down there, and that makes it very difficult to take photos. I am not too happy with this one.  Oh well, perhaps I will just have to go back someday.

After shooting this, I ventured downstream. There is another waterfall on this creek far downstream. I wasn’t planning to try to get all the way down to it, but I was curious if there was a trail. There was a trail and I followed it for awhile. But it led right to a house. It was a newly built house, but there was no one around, and it was seriously out in the middle of nowhere. I could see NO roads going down to it at all. It seemed that they would have to hike into their house to get to it.  It was very strange. Anyway, I turned around here, and I’m not sure if I could have followed the trail more downstream or not. It might be something to try another day.

To see more information on this waterfall, including directions and maps, please see my website:
http://www.waterfallswest.com#recent

I was looking to go out on a hike before the huge storm (supposedly 5 inches of rain) expected this weekend. At first I was thinking I would go out Friday morning, but the weather forecast was saying the rain would already be started by then. Not that I do not like hiking in the rain. I do, and I am still thinking of going out in the rain this weekend (or at least, immediately after the storm). But it is difficult to photograph in the rain, so I wanted to go out before it all started. So Thursday afternoon seemed like a good choice.

I took my son Jadon along with me. Usually, he doesn’t like hiking with me, but this time he said yes. Awesome. My plan was to go to my favorite little waterfall in the greater Sacramento area: American Canyon Creek Falls. It is a moderate 4 mile hike, easy enough for Jadon as well.

As we started hiking down the trail, I could tell the creek was flowing high. Much higher than expected. This was before the big storm, which means after this weekend it will be craziness down here. But with a higher creek flow, that meant the creek crossings would be rather interesting. There are three creek crossings on this hike. The first two are in mellow sections of water, and usually you can easily rock hop across. For myself, I was able to do it without getting my feet wet, but I had to be careful because the rocks were wet and slippery. But for Jadon, it was a lot more difficult. But all this was perfectly fine for him. He just splashed through the water in his boots. I tried to help him across on the rocks so he wouldn’t need to get his feet wet, but he thought it was more fun to just splash across. The little bum.

The last creek crossing is right at the base of the falls. In order to actually see the waterfall, you need to cross the creek. But the creek was rushing a lot faster here, and it was much too dangerous for Jadon to cross here. So he had to settle for just seeing the very bottom of the waterfall, which was a bit disappointing. He waited for me while I crossed the creek to take some photos. It was very dicey for me to cross as well, and I thought about it quite awhile before picking my spot to cross extremely carefully. I made it. There is really only one vantage point and composition to shoot this waterfall, and it is a difficult position in terms of placing the tripod, and then standing up on the side of a rock outcrop on slippery rocks. My legs were shaking as I stood there taking my photos, and hoping they would not buckle under me completely. I only took two photos. I had wanted to take a longer exposure, but after two photos, I had enough.

Meanwhile, Jadon was waiting for me on the other side and yelling at me while I was taking the photos. I could not tell what he was saying over the roar of the water. When I got back to him, he told me he heard Indians, and then he heard a mountain lion sneaking up on him. How he could hear anything above the loud sound of the creek is rather interesting (especially a mountain lion!). He is such a silly boy sometimes.

Here’s another view of beautiful snow and ice filled Shackleford Falls. Aren’t those icicles hanging down so totally cool?

I was standing up on a big rock to get this viewpoint. If it wasn’t so freezing, I wouldn’t mind standing more in the creek to get a shot here. haha.

It seems not many people know about Oneonta Falls. It is not an advertised waterfall in the Columbia River Gorge, and in the past, it was often mistaken for smaller Middle Oneonta Falls. I think these days, more people know about it, and it is getting more traffic. It is off the beaten path, but it is not too terribly difficult to get down to. The first section is very steep, but there are plenty of handholds to use.

Oneonta Falls was one of the two waterfalls in the Gorge that I absolutely had to get to on this trip (the other being Upper Bridal Veil).  And I must say, it is a stunning location. I could have spent all day down there enjoying this one, and I really did not want to leave. It is tucked down at the bottom of a gorgeous canyon, it seems like you are in a separate world, and indeed, there will not likely be another soul in sight, and you will be able to enjoy this one all to yourself. There are plenty of photo opportunities down there as well, and you can even walk in behind the falls if you so desire. It is just a magnificent place.

On a final note, I have finally finished updating my site with all the Oregon waterfalls I visited on this trip. I have added or updated 26 Columbia River Gorge waterfalls on my site, and have added info for an additional 40 Oregon waterfalls to my site:

http://www.waterfallswest.com#recent

Leaf Placer! I have never placed a leaf for a photo in my life, and never will. Ha! Do you believe me?

This is another one from Punch Bowl Falls in the Columbia River Gorge. We spent a lot of time here wading around in the creek, taking shots, placing leaves … er, I mean looking for great compositions with Fall leaf colors in them.