Leon Turnbull Photography

I had a couple different visions for my ultimate return to Rainbow Falls and this was not either of them. My first vision was to snowshoe here in winter. I think this would be quite do-able except for one thing: there is literally nowhere to park overnight in Mammoth Lakes in the winter. I still have not figured out the logistics of how to do this. Let me know if you have an idea. The second vision is to come here in May before the road opens. There are a couple other waterfalls in the area I still need to see. I think this is definitely a possibility and I will likely do it in the next couple years or so.  This brings us to October of 2022. It still has not snowed yet. The road to Devils Postpile Monument is closed early due to construction.  There would be no one down at the waterfall. How about a quick overnight backpacking trip to Rainbow Falls? Heck yeah. Let’s do it!

On a side note regarding future visions: you may like to know that I have already started planning for a huge waterfall trip in 2024 in celebration of our 25th wedding anniversary. Yeah, that’s right: 2024. One and a half years away and I’m planning it now. I’m so excited already. It is going to be absolutely EPIC. I can’t say what it is yet but it rhymes with mice and hand. Oh yeah, and don’t worry. I’m sure I will have some big trips happening in 2023 as well. If we get any snow this winter, that is.

Anyhow, it is not quite on the same scale but I was excited to go backpacking this weekend as well. Rainbow Falls is a pretty waterfall that flows year-round and with nothing much else happening in California I figured this should be a very good trip. Maybe I would see some Fall colors as well.

I arrived at the trailhead about noon. There was one other backpacker starting about 2 minutes before I did but I did not see him on the trail. He was either hiking faster than me or he turned off somewhere, or both. I did not see anyone on the first day except for one group of day hikers. It would be pretty tough to go down to Rainbow Falls as a day hike but it is certainly do-able. It is much better, however, to camp down there. The hike is pretty easy. No off-trail shenanigans. It is all on trail, and such a beautiful trail as well. Gentle terrain. Wide and smooth. Not rocky. It was perhaps the best trail I have hiked in years.

I knew I could not camp at the upper falls (shown here) – at least not anywhere with access to water, so I went down to the lower falls to camp. I thought there would be plenty of spots to setup my tent but there really wasn’t very much. The ground was too soft to put tent stakes in and it was quite windy which was pulling the stakes out of the ground. I piled some big rocks on top of the stakes and hoped my tent would stay in place. If it got too windy, I might be blown all the way to Kansas during the night.

After dinner I went back up to the 101 ft. high Rainbow Falls to take photos. That is when I noticed a sign that said there was toxic algae in the water. Oh bloody great. I already drank the water down at the lower falls! Was there toxic algae down there as well? There weren’t any signs but it is not very far from the upper falls. If there was then I was already dead. But I got my water out of a good flowing part of the river. That should be ok. Right? Well, if you are reading this then I guess you know the answer.

I went down to the bottom and found the waterfall still in the sun so I sat down and waited. There was quite a bit of garbage around. If you are the one who left your dirty diaper down here for me to take back for you then please send me your address so I can mail it to you. I’m sure you did not mean to leave it there. (insert mad face emoji here). As I waited, a chipmunk came by, hoping for a snack. He became disappointed and left. Surprisingly, I had cell service so I texted with my wife while waiting for the sun to go down. I did not have to wait too long. I took my photos then went back to camp and watched a movie before going to bed. In the morning, everything went to berserk …

 

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I was last here five years ago but did not get to the lower falls. The lower falls is quite a bit away from the other waterfalls so I would have needed an extra day to go to it. I considered it at the time but I was just too tired. I vowed to return. Then the Creek Fire happened in 2020, which literally devastated the entire area. Many of the trails are still closed, and the Isberg and Cora trails only just re-opened this summer. It was finally time to go see the Lower North Fork San Joaquin River Falls.

It is a very long 5 hour drive to the Isberg trailhead but I was on the trail by 10AM. I expected the hike to be fairly easy and I should be at camp by 2PM. Yeah right, but it should be a good test for me. I have not backpacked in 3 months and have done very little hiking. I am still way overweight from the summer, but I have been working out a lot and I felt strong.

There were quite a few cars at the trailhead. It was surprising considering how far out of the way this trailhead is. Even so, I only saw a couple day hikers on the first day. I saw zero people on the second day.

A couple interesting things: Firstly, I noticed there was a lot of water flowing in all the creeks. When I was here 5 years ago (a wet year), they were all dry or mostly dry. I certainly was expecting them to be dry this year, indeed I was worried they would ALL be dry and I might even have problems getting water to drink from the big creek. There had been some recent rain but I honestly did not think it had rained very much here. Yet even the trail was muddy in quite a few places. They must have received more rain than I had thought.

Secondly, the devastation: it was massive. The entire canyon was scorched. I felt like I was on a barren planet. When I got off the Isberg trail onto the Cora trail I was expecting to encounter a lot of blowdowns. That was not the case, however. The trail had been completely cleared by the NFS. This was a good thing. Perhaps this is why it took so long to re-open the trails and why many trails are still closed. They don’t want to re-open them until they have cleared them. Compare to the Dixie Fire and Caldor Fire from last year. The trails there are all (mostly) re-opened already (and certainly not cleared yet). The trails in Stanislaus NF could be closed many more years if they are going to wait until they are all cleared. I don’t think that is a good thing, but at least they are actively working on clearing them. Unlike at Yosemite National Park, where they have let the trails go to rot after a fire many years ago. (I’m still upset about that – if you can’t tell – ugh).

It was much harder getting down to the river than I expected. I really thought it was going to be a cakewalk except for maybe one small section. It was difficult and steep and rocky and brushy. I made it down to the river at 3PM, one hour longer than anticipated. I found a nice spot to camp at the top of the waterfall, made my dinner, then went down to see the falls afterwards.

Lower North Fork San Joaquin River Falls is a gorgeous 51 ft. high plunge into a big, beautiful, magnificent pool. It is a stunning oasis in the middle of the devastated canyon and well worth seeing. I took many photos and enjoyed the waterfall immensely.

I returned to camp. It was still early so I relaxed on the rocks by the river (where there were no gnats). After I was attacked by a water spider, I decided to retreat to my tent and then watched a movie before bed. It was a warm night and I slept fairly well beside the sound of the rushing river.

I got up early, made my breakfast and coffee, and was on the trail by 7:30am. I found an easier way back out of the canyon, which saved a bit of time (well, slightly easier – it was still a tough 2000 ft. climb). I was back at my vehicle by 12PM, and home by 5PM. It was a fantastic, short weekend in Ansel Adams Wilderness.

 

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Don’t pay the ferryman … until he gets you to the other side. (Chris Deburgh)

We had a boat ride and two ferries and a border crossing. We would not arrive in Seattle until 10PM at night. Best case scenario. It was not the best case scenario.

Thanks to Roger stopping for 15 minutes at the seal factory on the way back (mentioned on a prior post), we barely made it onto the first ferry in time. I was more worried about the second one because it is a bigger crossing, but we made that one easily. I was super tired so I stayed in the vehicle hoping to get a snooze. Normally BC Ferries does not allow you to stay in your vehicle for the crossing but this time they did. I thought it was because of a safety issue. So why is it not a safety issue for the crossing this time? Hmmmm … Well I could not sleep because of a dog barking and two car alarms going off and all the announcements they were making over the PA system. When my family returned to the car and tried to open the door OUR car alarm went off. It is a new car and I could not figure out how to turn the alarm off. It took a long time. Now I was thoroughly embarrassed!

Well … the ferry docked and we waited and waited and waited for our lane to start moving. Usually it is very quick. None of the lanes were moving. What the heck? We learned soon enough that a big semi truck had broken down and was blocking most of the exit lanes. Oh my gosh! They had to back us out in reverse down a very tight narrow lane so then we could exit on the second level ramp. It was pure craziness! Don’t pay the ferryman until he gets you to the other side! (I wish)

We ate dinner at Boston Pizza and then continued to the border crossing. That took a long time. They had just one lane open! This is a major crossing and only one lane is open. Oh come on for Pete’s sake. Immediately after getting across the border we got on I-5 and promptly came to a complete stand still. There was a major accident blocking all lanes of the freeway. We were stuck for almost an hour. Well this is going just great so far. Not! We would not arrive at our motel in Seattle (Issaquah) until well after midnight.

We had just four hours of sleep then we had to get up and go. We had a very long drive ahead of us, but also Tara and I both wanted to stop at Snoqualmie Falls on the way back home. We have never been to this waterfall before and have wanted to go for a long time. It is a very gorgeous 268 ft. high plunge. It was a great ending to our awesome vacation.

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From the Klahoose Resort website: The Klahoose First Nation peoples have lived here on the central west coast of British Columbia since time immemorial. Klahoose First Nation territories span from Cortes Island, opposite Quadra Island near Campbell River to Toba Inlet.

There is a trail from the resort going straight up the mountain alongside a creek. Supposedly there is an old growth forest up there somewhere. I wanted to hike up and find it. The security guy at the resort was a bit over the top paranoid. He wanted to know exactly where everyone was going and for how long. I can understand that but he also wanted us all to carry bear spray as well whenever we go out. There are no grizzly bears in this area, only black bears. Bear spray is not necessary for black bears. Here is the problem: most people going out have no idea or experience on how to use bear spray and they literally only received a one minute instruction on it. It is inevitable that someone is going to encounter a black bear on the trail and freak out and spray it when the bear is only minding his own business. I did not want to take the bear spray but took it anyway so I would not get in trouble from him. Then I promptly forgot it in our room and did not realize it until I was 30 minutes up the mountain. (maybe I subconsciously forgot it on purpose?)

It was an incredibly beautiful hike through the forest and a bit eerie. I did not see any wildlife whatsoever on the hike. There were not even any birds or squirrels. Only a banana slug. Also it was straight up. I climbed up the mountain for over an hour, I guess about 1200 ft. in elevation, and then the trail ended when it came close to the creek. I still did not see any old growth forest. The trail became exponentially more difficult now, it was more of a mad scramble. How much further was this old growth forest anyway? I climbed up just a little bit and lo and behold I see a waterfall! This was a complete surprise. I had figured there must be a waterfall on this creek somewhere if I climbed high enough but did not think I would easily be able to find anything. It was too cliffy and not possible to get down to the creek side, but I scrambled through the bushes and found a good viewpoint of it. The creek has no name so I will call it Klahoose Falls. A beautiful 71 ft. high bonus waterfall! I was so happy! I retreated back down the mountain and got back down just in time for lunch (and just in time before the paranoid security guy sent out a search party).

In the afternoon Roger took us to Refuge Cove and Teakerne Arm Provincial Park (which I mentioned on my last post). There is only a very small dock here so he had to drop us all off and then go back out and wait in the harbor. He gave us an hour. I really thought we had this timed out perfectly. My calculations said the waterfall would be in the shade at 4PM. However, it was still in full sun when we arrived. I waited and waited and waited but it was still in sun at 5PM. I had no choice but to take my photo. I was a bit bummed about it. Nekoda was with me and we ran back to the dock as fast as we could. We were five minutes late. They had already left without us! Well, he did come back and get us. (he could not wait at the dock for even five minutes because it is so small and it is a very busy place). My wife gave me the stink eye when we got back on the boat. Gee whiz, darling, I was only five minutes late! Ha ha! It was yet another beautiful day in Desolation Sound.

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Every meal we had at the Klahoose Resort was exquisite. Our dinner the first night was salmon. It was the second best salmon I have ever eaten. The best (and it will always be the best) was when we were backpacking the West Coast Trail on Vancouver Island. A fisherman came up to us one night and sold us a salmon he had just caught on the ocean. We grilled it over the fire and it was unbelievably delicious. Everyone in our group thought the same (and probably still agrees it was the best ever – I know my sister and brother in law still think so).

Much of the regular staff at Klahoose were out sick with COVID when we were there. Unfortunate, however I think we really lucked out on the replacement staff. The waitress was incredibly nice. The chef was amazing. And Roger the boat driver was above and beyond off the top nice. Here are some examples of what he did: (1) Firstly, he knew I liked waterfalls so he went out of his way to take us to some. He went to Racine Falls twice (on the way there and back – they don’t usually do this). (2) He took Nekoda and Tara out on the boat to check his prawn traps.  (3) On the way home he stopped for 15 minutes at a rock island where seals were hanging out. This almost made us late for the ferry and the German family late for their flight, and their taxi driver to the airport was a bit perturbed about it – ha ha. (4) One day there was a black bear near the resort. It was off at the point in the distance (at the exact spot where my wife and daughter were swimming the day before). We could see it from the dock but it was a bit far away. Roger comes up to us and asks us if we want to go out in the little boat to see it closer. We all jumped at this. I sprinted back to the room to grab my camera, then he took us over to the point and we all saw the bear up close from the water. It was a very special experience. (5) He took us all on a second boat ride (us and the Iowa family) and not just anywhere but to Teakerne Arm Provincial Park where this is a nice waterfall. When I inquired about going here before the trip I was told it would cost an extra $2000 to go to Teakerne Arm. Ahh, no thanks. I do not want to pay $2000 to just see one 50 ft. high waterfall. I decided to skip it. But Roger took us here for no extra charge! I’m fairly certain if the main boat driver was not sick then we would not have been able to go here. We also got ice cream at the store in Refuge Cove and the Iowa family paid for Roger’s ice cream in appreciation (a small but very nice gesture).

On our first full day here we all got to go on a big boat ride to Toba Inlet. The first stop was at Brem River to see grizzly bears (unfortunately it is not the season to see grizzlies and we did not see any). We did not see much wildlife on this trip. Other than the black bear, we saw just a couple eagles and some seals. We really would have liked to see whales and grizzly bears but it was not in the cards. After Brem River, he took us to Racine Falls: An absolutely incredible waterfall dropping into the ocean at magnificent flow. We got soaked as he took us right under the falls and into the spray. I was busy trying to photograph the falls and did not realize we were about to get wet. Nekoda told me we were going under. I said that’s ok. She said, what about your other camera, it is about to get drenched. Oh yeah, I better move it! Thanks girl. It is very difficult to photograph a waterfall from a boat on the ocean. A tripod is useless so all my shots are hand held. Would I even get any decent photo? It was an incredible day in Desolation Sound.

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