Leon Turnbull Photography

This is Split Falls, the second waterfall on Fordyce Creek (15 ft. high). Getting to this one requires a bit of an off-trail scramble, but it is not difficult. You can’t get right down to the creek level though, you are up on this overhanging ledge. I got myself and my camera out right to the edge to get this shot. Then it started raining. I just continued on shooting in the rain, though my dog, Kaya, was trying to prod me to finish up and start hiking back. She’s normally very patient with me while I photograph, but I guess she didn’t like the rain too much. Well, it stopped raining anyway after a few minutes, so our hike back wasn’t too wet after all.

What is this? A waterfall in California with spring time flows in late September? Impossible, you say? But ’tis so, my friends. This is Fordyce Creek, near Emigrant Gap, and it is flowing just dandy. But how can this be? A ha, well that is the question, isn’t it? Fordyce Creek is a controlled water way, and this month PG&E has been dumping water from the upstream dam at Fordyce Lake, in order to facilitate making repairs on the dam. Great news for kayakers and waterfall hunters. Normally, this creek would be just a trickle at this time of year. There are two small but decent waterfalls on Fordyce Creek. This one is called Fordyce Falls (brilliant name, eh?) and it is 13 ft. high. But a word of warning: if you are reading this and decide you want to go, you’d better do it quickly cuz PG&E will be turning off the tap very soon (it is already half the flow it was when I was there last week).
Now admittedly, the waterfalls on Fordyce Creek are really nothing to write home about (13 and 15 ft. high), and it is a fairly long hike to go see them. That’s probably why I hadn’t been to them before now, though I did make an attempt a couple years ago. Nonetheless, when I learned that PG&E was releasing water, I figured that this was the time, and I immediately made my plans to go.

Since it is a long hike, I wanted to start hiking in the dark, in order to be at the falls by sunrise. I figured it would be easy to find the trailhead in the dark since I had been there before. Not! I had remembered there being a sign along the road at the trailhead. I found no signs, except a “no trespassing” sign. Could this be the right place? It just did not seem right, but I could not tell in the dark, so I decided to wait around the for the light. Fortune (I mean, God) was with me, as it was an overcast day, and thus it did not matter if I made it to the falls by sunrise; the light would still be good for photography. When it did get light, I was able to find “a trail”, and it wasn’t at the no trespassing sign, but it still wasn’t how I remembered it at all, and I ended up trampling through the forest using my GPS to guide me, until I finally got on the correct path that I remembered.

When I was here a couple years ago with my dog, Kaya, PG&E at that time was letting out water at Fuller Lake. The trail proper crosses the outlet of Fuller Lake (at a waterfall), and thus I came to a dead end, as I was not able to cross that raging stream, or I couldn’t get Kaya across, or maybe both (it was quite awhile ago, and my memory is fading). This year, the outlet stream was dry and it was easy for Kaya and myself to continue on. I wonder if she remembered that hike before – not likely, I couldn’t even remember it.

The trail leads down from Fuller Lake to Spaulding Lake, and then follows that lake to the end, where Fordyce Creek dumps into it. I was relieved when I heard Fordyce Creek and that it was flowing well (I was worried they might have turned off the tap). The trail then continues up Fordyce Creek, but well away from the creek. This was not good. The trail wouldn’t even go near the waterfalls, and I would miss them. Eventually, though, the trail wound its way back to the creek at the base of the 2nd waterfall. It was easy to get down to the creek to photograph it, and it was flowing beautifully. To get to the other waterfall, I had to back track down the trail to a spot where I could scramble over to it. It was not difficult to do that (for myself or Kaya). All in all, it was a fabulous day, and I was happy to finally get out to see these falls.

After work on Friday, I drove up to the mountains to find some Fall Colors. Last year at this time, Monitor Pass was at full peak for color. This year, not so much. It was still very green everywhere. We had a very warm and hot September here, and thus the leaves have not yet started to turn yet, but I was hoping Monitor Pass would have a bit more color as that area usually turns first. It didn’t. Well, they say it is supposed to really cool off this week, so by next weekend it should hopefully be much better.

When I arrived at the Aspen grove at the top of the pass, I found a large group (or two) of campers. They had their four wheelers all lined up and were making lots of obnoxious noise. Argh! Firstly, I think it is a strange place to be camping, there is not much around here (but if they’re just there to tear up all the trails with their four wheelers, I guess that makes sense – argh again!). Secondly, whenever I have been up here before, I have never seen very many people here. Maybe one or two (at the most) other people camping is all I have seen. Thirdly, they were completely blocking the road where I wanted to go! I could not drive around them where I wanted, and they were being too obnoxious and likely drunk, so I didn’t want to walk right through their camp. Instead, I made my way around to the other side of the grove. I found this scene with the moon rising over the trees and glowing in the late evening light. These trees had some yellow colors starting to show, but still were mostly green.

Here’s another one from my nice sunset evening at Folsom Lake last week, taken a bit earlier in the evening. There was no foreground I could use at all, with the lake so low the shoreline is rather ugly, so I just lined up my camera on the edge of the water and used the reflection as the foreground. It was a challenge to keep the kids from throwing rocks into the water near my camera, which would then mess up the reflection with ripples in the water. Sigh.

On Sunday, I went out again for sunset, and back to Lake Clementine. A couple weeks ago, I took my son Jadon on a hike to the lake in search of a sunset view overlooking the lake, but we ended up at the wrong spot and sunset was a dud. This time, I found the right spot, but sunset was again a dud, this time because the cloud cover was just too thick. Strike two.

I went by myself this time, because Jadon did not feel like coming on the hike with me. I did find the right spot, though, and I apologize to my friend, Rob, for stealing his secret location. But I did really like his photo from here, and I really wanted to come here to get a similar shot myself. Besides, I am sure he has stolen a secret waterfall location from me, once or twice. ha ha. Anyway, I’ll have to return again here some day, since the sunset colors just never materialized.

It is a bit of a hike up to this spot, about 1.5 miles, and I admit I was a bit nervous hiking back in the dusky light. I walked as fast as I could to try to get back to the car before dark. I kept hearing noises in the bushes, and the terrain is such that it would be a great area for a mountain lion to hide out above the trail and pounce down on me. The noises I heard were probably just birds, I guess, as I never did see anything. Except once I did hear a very large noise in the bushes, and when I looked up, I saw that it was just a deer. Phew. Well, I made it back to the car in one piece, and before it got dark.