Leon Turnbull Photography

In the winter, the town of Rossland BC is often steeped in fog for the entire day. It is gloomy, overcast, blah. Sometimes though, if you go up skiing, you will get above the fog and it will be sunny on the top of the mountain. It is a very cool thing to look down on a sea of fog from the top of Granite Mountain. Sometimes you do not even need to go up to the top of the mountain.

On this particular morning I just drove up the highway, and a short distance past the ski hill, I drove out of the fog and into the clear. I found a turnout and walked back down the highway to this spot (which is at the Hanna Creek drainage). There was a nice beautiful glow on the horizon prior to the sun rising. The sea of fog in the valley is just so incredibly cool. I’ve been wanting a shot like this for a long time. It would have been better if there was some nice clouds for sunrise, but this will do for now, I guess. The valley shown here is actually Warfield/Trail, you can’t see Rossland from this view (if the fog was not there, I mean).

After my great outing at Deer Creek Falls, I stopped at nearby Tulip Creek Falls on the way back. What a difference! Tulip Creek was almost completely frozen over. I could easily walk across the creek on the ice, and indeed, I was standing on the ice to take this photo. It was certainly a very interesting experience, and much different from when I have been to this waterfall in the past.

I was of course not surpised that the waterfall was frozen. The temperature in the area had been very cold for quite a while. When we arrived in Rossland, it was 10 degrees Fahrenheit (-12 Celsius). It did not get much warmer than this the entire week we were there. On this particular morning at Tulip Creek, it was probably even colder than this.

The cold temperatures did not stop my kids from having fun, however. They do not get to play in the snow much in California, and they took full advantage of the time they had at Grandma and Grandpa’s house in Rossland. My parents have a great house with a huge backyard, and it has a steep hill which is great for sledding. I spent many many hours as a child sledding down that hill (and quite a few as an adult too). Both Jadon and Nekoda had a great time this Christmas going out to play and sled down that hill, especially Jadon. He went out every day we were there, no matter what the weather, or even if he was the only one out there. He definitely had a fabulous time there, and I am so happy he took advantage of his time up there.

We also took the kids out ice skating and snow skiing for the first time. They both did very well at both. It took Jadon awhile to get the hang of them, but Nekoda seems to learn things so very fast. In particular, she was a whiz on ice skates. It was as though she was born to skate, a complete natural. I was totally amazed at how well she was skating for the first time on skates (remember, she is only 4 years old). I really wish it wasn’t so expensive and difficult to skate (or ski) here in California, or we would no doubt go much more. It is just totally ridiculous how expensive it is compared to Canada. Ah well, what can you do.

The weather man did it to me again … sorta. The forecast was supposed to be all overcast and cloudy for Saturday, nothing doing for any type of sunrise. I figured if it was going to be overcast, then I should go waterfallin. I wouldn’t really have to worry too much about getting up too early, as the sun would not be a factor.

So my plan was to just go on an easy close-by hike to a local waterfall. American Canyon Creek in Auburn. It is one of my favourite hiking trails in the area because it is not killer, but it is still a pretty good workout. And the waterfall is a very pretty one too, as you can see. It is not a big one, but it drops through a tiny narrow rock gorge, into a large emerald green pool, and it is just so very unique.

It was extremely foggy on Saturday morning, perhaps the foggiest I have seen it here in a long time. But when I got into Auburn, I got above the fog, and the sky was clear with a beautiful sunrise brewing on the horizon. What happened to overcast skies? I was just a little late to go find a nice vantage point for the sunrise so I continued with my original plan for American Canyon Creek. The fog in the valley was fortunate, because the waterfall would be down below the fog layer, and so the sun would not be a factor for photographing the falls.

The parking at the trailhead has room for 3 cars only. And I was pretty surprised to see 2 cars there when I arrived at 7:30AM. And the 2 cars took up all 3 parking spaces! Argh! I had to squish my big SUV in beside them somehow, which was a bit interesting. Indeed, it was interesting to see any other people on this trail, especially so early. But I saw quite a few joggers on the trail during the day. I guess it is a pretty popular running trail, but I don’t think I have ever seen anyone on this trail before, or at least not so many people.

Anyway, they were just all jogging off somewhere into cougar-land (I’m not kidding about that), so I had the waterfalls all to myself. My first stop was Lower American Canyon Creek Falls, which is one I wanted to definitely get back to because I was not happy with my shots of that falls the first time I was here. After visiting the lower falls, I came back up the trail to this waterfall. The creek flow was on the low side, though it was about what I expected it to be. Since the gorge is so very narrow, the waterfall is actually a bit nicer when the flow is lower like this. It is somewhat difficult to get the right vantage point to photograph, as there is only one spot to shoot from, and it requires a lot of finagling of the tripod to get it steady enough to shoot, and then standing on slippery rocks on the side of a hill. Such is the life of the waterfall hunter.

Winter Waterfalls … one of my goals this winter was to find and photograph some winter snowy icy waterfalls. I love waterfalls in snow/ice, but we don’t have very many in California where I live. They are either all buried completely in snow, or there won’t be flowing, or they are at lower elevations where there is no snow. There are a few perhaps, but not many. Well, up in British Columbia there are some, and I visited a few of them while I was up there for Christmas.

The first one and best one I saw was Deer Creek Falls. It was really incredibly beautiful in the winter and was flowing quite well, but it is darn difficult to photograph.

I was fortunate in being able to get to Deer Creek Falls, actually. There was a lot less snow in the area compared to the last time we were here in the winter. I was surprised because the ski hill opened early, so I was expecting there to be a lot more snow than usual. Instead, there was less. And it was cold. Darn cold. Less than 10 degrees Fahrenheit cold.

What this all meant though was that I could drive right to the Deer Creek Falls trailhead. If there had been a lot more snow, I would have had to walk the last 2 miles to the trailhead, or perhaps not even be able to get to it at all. It just made things a lot easier to be able to drive to it. There was some snow on the ground at the trailhead, and I was walking the entire way to the waterfall through it, but it was only a few inches deep, so it was pretty easy and I did not need snowshoes.

When I arrived at the trailhead at around sunrise, I was pleasantly greeted by some elk up on the hillside. I saw about 10 of them there, and I took the time to switch lenses and try to photograph them. They were watching me, no doubt wondering what crazy man would be up there so early in the day and on such a cold day as this. After a short time, I let them be, and started the hike to Deer Creek Falls.

The first half of the trail, I was following elk prints. I guessed the elk liked the waterfall too, but I think actually they were mostly interested in the creek water, as the prints turned off the path once I got a bit closer to the creek.

Deer Creek Falls is in total about 70 feet tall in two tiers. It is a real beauty in the winter but it is just too difficult to photograph. There is just tons of debris and fallen logs, and thick brush all around the creek area near the base of the falls. I just could not figure out how to photograph the entire waterfall, both tiers. And I thought about it a long long time too. In the summer, it is worse because it is impossible to work your way through the brush to get up to the falls. It was easier with snow on the ground, and I was determined to make my way up to the base of the falls. I did it, but it was a lot of work. Finally I got to the base of the falls, and got into a tricky position to take this photograph of the bottom tier of the waterfall, positioning the tripod on a fallen log and wedging myself in a tight corner, hoping not to fall into the creek. It worked.

Well, I am back. We just returned from our Christmas vacation up to British Columbia, and I have many photos to process. I only had time to do one photo tonight and this is it.

Our first stop on the way up to Canada was at 186 ft. high Palouse Falls for sunset, and it is a doozy. Palouse Falls has been on my list to visit for quite some time, but for some reason I always figured it was just too far out of the way and I never got around to making a trip out to it. This time around, however, I actually looked at a map, and I realized it is not so far out of the way after all. In fact, it was only about a 1 hour drive out of the way on our trip up through Spokane to BC. I was excited to learn this. Indeed, if I had realized this, we would have gone to Palouse Falls a long time ago. We could have probably done it all in one day and after hitting Palouse, get to my parents house in BC well before midnight. My wife did not really like that idea, however. The poor kids would be suffering from a late drive. So we decided to stay an extra night in Spokane after hitting sunset at Palouse.

We arrived at Palouse Falls fairly early in the afternoon, a few hours before sunset. We had lunch out in the cold, then walked around a bit. I was happy to learn that Palouse Falls was flowing great. I had definitely expected much less flow for the winter. I also thought there would be more snow and ice around the falls. Too bad about the lack of snow, but I was definitely happy about the flow of the waterfall.

I had heard many reports that there is essentially only one spot to shoot Palouse Falls from, photographically speaking. And I had heard that it was on a very scary, narrow, and unobstructed ledge, with a humungous drop to the bottom if you missed a step. I was very worried about this. I was anticipating there to be snow and ice around, and I really didn’t want to be climbing out on an icy ledge to photograph the falls. I was happy to learn that it wasn’t quite as scary as I was anticipating. Yes, the ledge is a bit freaky for sure, but it is not dangerous to stand there, and I didn’t have to worry about snow and ice.

The sunset was fabulous, and I had it all to myself on this evening. It didn’t look like it would actually amount to much, and I was about ready to pack it all in and head back to the warm car, but then the color started appearing.What a sight. It was definitely worth the wait and the many years I had been waiting to finally get to Palouse Falls.