Leon Turnbull Photography

We spent Mother’s Day weekend up in northern CA visiting the in-laws. I had hopes of doing a big hike on Monday to some new waterfalls, however the weather put a big damper on that idea. I got out in the rain, but didn’t do anything significant or get to any new stuff. It would not have been very pleasant to do a 12 mile hike in the pouring rain.

This shot was taken before the rain started, on Saturday evening. This is Lower Battle Creek Falls near Mineral. The creek was raging. When I was here last time, we were able to get right down in the creek at the base of the falls. I even brought my water shoes along so I could do a similar type of thing. What was I thinking. The creek was flowing far too deep and fast to do any such nonsense this time. This shot was taken from up on a rock on the steep hillside.

Yesterday my friend Rob and I took a trip out to Table Mountain in Oroville to check out some different waterfalls. I was “pretty sure” that the waterfalls there would still be flowing. Wrong. We went to four different falls and three were dry. Only one was flowing, but we arrived there too late. The sun was already shining directly in our faces in front of the waterfall. It was very difficult to photograph the waterfall because of this, and I was not very happy with how the photo turned out (however, I did post the picture below anyway).

The waterfall is Beatson Falls, one of a couple magnificent falls on Table Mountain (along with Phantom Falls). Beatson Falls, however, does not get very many visitors. It is a bit off the beaten path, I suppose, and not as many people venture over that way. It is not difficult to get to, however. But it is difficult to photograph.

The terrain on Table Mountain is just incredible. Here you are, walking along a very flat open grassy area, watching that you don’t step on any rattlesnakes, then all of a sudden you come to the edge of a monster canyon with massive death defying drop-offs. Streams flow through these canyons, and in the winter months they form huge waterfalls. All the canyons on Table Mountain seem to look alike, and all the waterfalls seem to look alike as well. It is an extraordinary landscape. At Beatson Falls, there are also very interesting pinnacle formations as well. I just wish the streams would have more flow to them. You have to get here immediately after a lot of rain or they will go back to being their dry normal selves again.

At Beatson Falls, it is very difficult to get a good view of the waterfall due to these death defying drop-offs. We chose the south side of the stream. We had very little time since the sun was already above the horizon. We found a viewpoint of the falls, but we had to get very near the edge of the canyon to see it. It was very un-nerving to be so close to the edge. Do not look down, and stop shaking your knees or you will wobble right off the edge! Unfortunately, the sun was right in our faces here. Rob decided to use his mountain goat capabilities and try photographing from the other side. I should have done this as well as he got a much better photograph, but it looked even more dicier on the other side, so I just chose to go down to the top of the falls and take some shots from there. The photo above is a small 5 foot cascade at the top of Beatson Falls.

Here’s a shot of the main waterfall. I will definitely be back here when the light is better.

Here is a shot from a couple weeks ago. I am not sure why I did not post it yet. I kinda forgot about it.

I was trying to get to a certain waterfall in the Kyburz area but I failed miserably, thanks to a lot of heavy brush, not to mention a run-in with some loud barking dogs that were threatening to bite my leg off. So I just settled in on this fast flowing creek, and trying for a very long exposure. Maybe that’s why I forgot about it, I was trying to block the day and failed waterfall quest from my mind. Ha ha.

Hwy 70 past Oroville along the north fork Feather River is waterfall haven in the spring time. It is so beautiful with the rushing river, blooming flowers, and waterfalls falling everywhere. Many of the waterfalls are on unnamed streams, and some of them are more spectacular than others. Camp Creek Falls is one of the more spectacular ones, dropping about 300 ft. in a flurry of foaming water.

Camp Creek is hidden back from the highway. You need to know it is there in order to find it. You can catch a glimpse of the top of it from Hwy 70 if you are looking very hard. But in order to get up to it, you need to go on a back road, a windy, very rough, and very narrow dirt road, which leads to the Camp Creek powerhouse. The powerhouse is at the bottom of the falls, but unfortunately no view of the falls can be had from down there (plus, the access is closed off to the public). Before you get down to the powerhouse, though, the road crosses a bridge over the creek at the top of the falls. From there, you can make your way down the very steep terrain to get a look at the waterfall.

Camp Creek Falls reminded me a lot of Lower Foresta Falls in Yosemite. A narrow rough road, leading to a bridge crossing at the top of the falls (with some of the waterfall flowing above the bridge, but most of it below). Wildflowers abounding along the road, and a difficult scramble to get from the road down to see the falls.

The waterfall is an amazing display in the spring. I can’t believe I didn’t know about this one before now. It is arguably the best in the area (though Chambers Creek Falls is perhaps a notch above it, but not by much). The section shown here is not the entire waterfall, it is only a 146 ft. section from the bridge. There is more of it falling below this, but it seemed to be too difficult to get down any lower, and I was out of time anyway. The sun was coming up and I wanted to get to one more waterfall before it did.

This is Codfish Creek Falls from my outing last week during the crazy hailstorm. Just as I arrived at the falls, the hail and rain stopped, and the sun came out for a short peek.

The waterfall was flowing crazily. The last time I came here, I was able to stand right in the middle of the creek for my shot. Not so today.