The old man returns to Phantom Falls. It was my birthday. I took the day off work and went for a hike. To one of my favorite places. With Journey.
Journey is a high energy, high maintenance dog. That is not a bad thing, it is just the way she is. It is built into her genes from her breed. She will play fetch with mom for an hour non-stop and still not be tired. I don’t think I am exaggerating much. She loves her walks with daddy and also “needs” a walk every day. That’s not possible every day but I try to take her most days. I knew a 9 mile hike at North Table Mountain would not be a problem for her even though it was twice as long as anything we have done so far.
We arrived at sunrise. No one else was around. Yet. It is a very popular place, even in winter now. Even on a weekday. It never used to be popular in winter before. There were no cows around either. Yet. We began our journey to Phantom Falls.
I have to say I was disappointed with the amount of water flowing. I saw a photo from the 15th and it was flowing quite well. Since then they had 5 inches of rain. It should be absolutely amazing today. But alas, it was no better than the flow on the 15th. It was not horrible, it was good, but definitely not amazing, which is what I was expecting and hoping for. Indeed I was worried about crossing the creeks with Journey. Would she be able to even do that? Well, it was not really an issue at all.
We stopped at Ravine Falls first. Then to the viewpoint at Phantom Falls. Then we crossed over Phantom Falls and continued on, looking for another waterfall, however the creek was dry (disappointing). I did see a coyote, which was cool. Journey did not see it. We also saw a bunch of bones from an eaten cow. Someone had a feast (I assume it was a mountain lion, not the coyote, but who knows). Journey was very interested in sniffing all the bones. We came back to Little Phantom and Lower Ravine Falls, had our lunch at Lower Ravine Falls, then continued on back to the car. Journey did not want to cross the creek at the top of Lower Ravine Falls. It was not really that deep but I guess it was too deep for her and she could not see the bottom where she was stepping. We went upstream a bit and found a better crossing. It was a good 9 mile hike by the time we were all done. Journey was very tired and slept on the drive home (but was raring to go again once we got home). She did awesome on the hike. She was incredibly patient while I took photos of all the waterfalls. She listened well and was so happy. It was by far the best hike we have had thus far together.
As for the cows? We came close to them a couple of times. Journey was entranced. Can I go chase them, daddy? Pretty please? They certainly kept a close eye on her as we walked by. All in all, it was a fantastic birthday hike at North Table Mountain.
My second hike of the day was in nearby Kentfield. There were a ton of cars parked by the trailhead. I was a bit shocked. It was a rainy day and there were still this many people out hiking? And it started pouring. It was not supposed to rain until the afternoon, but it was raining. And hard. Maybe everyone else was not expecting it to rain until the afternoon as well.
Well a little rain has never stopped me. The hike started out with a very steep uphill. This road was crazy steep. After a few hundred feet of climbing it leveled out at a point where I needed to drop down off the road and down to the creek. It wasn’t too steep of a descent, thankfully, and I made it down to the waterfall in short order.
Bill Williams Creek Falls is 21 ft. high. Whoever Bill Williams is I have no idea. When I got home I looked up the name, however, and found this: “Legend has it that a ‘treasure’ lies buried somewhere on Mount Tamalpais. Bill Williams, after whom Bill Williams Creek is named, is said to have deserted the Confederate Army taking along a chest of stolen Confederate gold.” I did not find any treasure down at the creek except for this pretty waterfall. Nonetheless, I was expecting more water in the creek. There was a lot more in the first waterfall and the creeks are about the same size. It is difficult to take photos in the rain but I managed. Thanks again to Mike for telling me about this one.
I hiked up the mountain and then back down to the car. I decided to skip the third hike that I had planned. I was supposed to meet Nekoda for lunch. I wanted her to come hiking with me but she dances five days a week. She says she needs to rest on the weekend. I suppose that is smart. At least she can have lunch with her old man. It was another beautiful morning in Marin County.
I returned to Neverland (aka Marin County) to retrieve the waterfall I missed last weekend and more.
It rained one inch on Friday and a half inch earlier in the week so the creeks in the Bay Area should still be full. You would think. It seemed to me about the same as the prior week. I arrived at sunrise and found my one and only parking spot in the same spot as last week.
This was supposed to be a very quick hike but it took longer than I expected. Even so, it was all on trail and very beautiful following the creek the entire way. It is a magical place when it is green and lush and there is water. There was a bit of poison oak but I think I avoided it. After seeing the waterfall I continued up the trail a bit but did not find anything else.
Thanks to friend Mike for telling me about this one a few years ago. South Fork San Anselmo Creek Falls is a lovely 25 ft. high horsetail waterfall and it was flowing quite nicely. I had to sit down in the poison oak to take this photo. Kidding, but there was some right beside me. I was happy to finally see this waterfall. Now I don’t ever have to come back to this location with practically no parking available. After this I went on a second hike in a different spot so stay tuned for that…
It was time to return to the Bay Area after the recent rain. It is always a crapshoot with the waterfalls there. Will there be enough water or not? It had not really rained all that much but I thought they should be ok. Famous last words.
It has been 20 years since I have been to this spot. I know my memory is not what it used to be but it seems to me the parking used to be better. Residents have blocked off areas in front of their houses so no one can park there anymore. This is a public park. Why isn’t there any decent parking here? It is very annoying. I arrived at sunrise and I found one and only one place to park along the road. Better than nothing, I suppose.
I hiked up to the lower Cascade Falls first and took photos. After this my goal was to go to the Upper Cascade Falls, which I have not been to before, and a third waterfall as well. I hoped to get to all three of these because frankly, with the horrible parking situation, I never want to return here again. Well, I could have done this, except I went the wrong way to Upper Cascade Falls. Ugh. The way I went was a good path but it was a tough climb and then a tough descent back down to the creek. Some poison oak likely touched along the way as well. I found the waterfall.
Upper Cascade Falls (aka the Inkwell, aka the Plunge), is 20 ft. high exactly (with two tiers). I had to jump across the creek for the best view with both tiers in the photo. I did not plunge into the depths of the water although the creek was flowing pretty good. There was a lot of water flowing in all the creeks and I was a bit surprised (and pleased). I’m not positive (as I said, my memory is failing), but I actually think I have been to the upper falls before but just did not realize it was Upper Cascade Falls. It is not exactly a very striking waterfall.
Since the hike to the upper falls took a lot longer than expected (because I went the wrong way), I did not have time to go to the third waterfall. I had to meet my wife and daughter for lunch. Nekoda is going back to college for her next semester so we were dropping her (and all her stuff) off at her dorm room. I will have to come back here for the other waterfall (and deal with the parking again). It was a beautiful morning in Marin County.
It is mid January now and we still have not had any big storms yet this winter. We have only had a few small storms. The snow pack is less than 50% of normal. There are still no big storms in the forecast and unfortunately, we may be going back into a dry pattern at the end of January. Ugh!
But Saturday was a rain day. I decided I wanted to go out in the rain but just an easy hike. I left Journey at home because it was so wet. She probably would have enjoyed the wetness anyway, but the rocks were slippery and a bit dangerous. I would be going to a waterfall I have not been to before. Well, I made it to the waterfall all right and it was an easy hike all right, however the creek was almost completely dry! I could not believe it. This was a good sized creek. I was not expecting greatness but I was definitely expecting decency. Darn it! Now what should I do? Go home?
Since I was already in the area I figured I would go back to Mooney Flat Falls, which I have been to before. It is an easy hike and I knew it would be flowing a lot better than the first one. I did not want to do anything too difficult today (such as going down to the upper falls), so I just went to the lower falls. Even though it was raining the entire time, I was able to get some good photos of this 29 ft. cascade. It was a lovely rainy day out in Nevada County.
