Leon Turnbull Photography

Here is a huge waterfall for you. It was so big I could not even measure it with my laser rangefinder. I guess it must be 1000 ft. high at least. Or is that 1000 millimeters? Since I have moved down to the USA, I have forgotten all my metric. Ah well.

Anyway, huge waterfalls aside, this is definitely a very pretty little spot I found along the North Fork of the North Fork American River. I did not get to where I wanted to go today, and was not even going to take any photos, but I happened upon this scene and could not pass it up. The river is just so beautiful and amazingly green.

Although I did not get where I intended, I did get a good hike in this morning. It was my first hike since my surgery more than 2 weeks ago, and I am happy to say it went great and I am back in the groove (for hiking). It is a pretty tough climb out of the canyon, so it was definitely a good test for me.

I have been curious lately about what would be considered the “most photographed” waterfalls in California.  Obviously, Yosemite Falls would certainly be number one (and it was, by a very long shot). But I have heard people say McWay Falls and Eagle Falls are right up there in the number two or three position. Well, I decided to try to determine this. But how could one possibly find this out?

Well, here is my highly unscientific method. I browsed through the search listings on Flickr, which is the top photographer’s posting site on the web. The listings on Flickr should give (in my mind) an average estimation of reality. So with a bit of work, I came up with a very rough idea about the order. There were a few surprises. I thought Bridalveil would be number two, and I did think McWay and Eagle would be further up the list then they were. Alamere Falls was definitely a huge surprise.

So without further ado, here are the top 10 photographed waterfalls in all of California:

1. Yosemite Falls

2. Vernal Falls

3. Bridalveil Falls

4. Nevada Falls

5. Burney Falls

6. Alamere Falls

7. McWay Falls

8. Eagle Falls

9. Horsetail Falls (Yosemite)

10. Feather Falls

Here’s another one from Lundy Canyon. This is a lovely triple falls, 85 ft. high in total. To get to this spot, I had to cross the creek above the first fall, then scramble down to this spot. There were a lot of wildflowers in bloom on this side, as you can see, but I couldn’t really get a good composition that I liked. I had to shoot from higher up to get the best view, and thus the wildflowers were further away than what I would have preferred. And it is too bad the creek doesn’t have a lot more flow in it as well. But it is still a very pretty scene for sure.

This is cascade # 3 along the trail up to Paradise Meadows in Lassen NP. It is another pretty one, and it is about 20 feet high or so. I could not measure this one (or #4) because the battery in my laser rangefinder conked out. Bummer.

Here’s another little tidbit for you. This is not really the West Fork Hat Creek. None of these waterfalls are on the West Fork Hat Creek. They are actually all on an unnamed stream, which flows into the West Fork. But certain authors of certain guidebooks have called this series of falls West Fork Hat Creek Falls. I personally think they should be called Paradise Meadows Falls. But who am I to argue.

I believe this peak is called the Matterhorn, part of the Sawtooth Ridge in the Eastern Sierra. This ridge of mountains above Twin Lakes near Bridgeport is so very striking and interesting, and I was hoping to get some spectacular sunset colors above these peaks but that was not to be. However, I did get some nice dramatic evening clouds above this peak from the Horse Creek meadow, and I stopped to take advantage.