Leon Turnbull Photography

One of my primary goals for this year was to get to the bottom of Beatson Falls. I only know of two others that have done it, and they both describe their horror stories: huge cliffs, horribly steep terrain, poison oak, whatever else you can think of. Well, I could not let these usurpers get the better of me. I am the only madman around here. I’m kidding of course. Both of them are good friends.

Anyway, this past weekend seemed like a good time to go. We have had very little rain this winter and I have not felt that it has been worth it to visit Table Mountain this year, but this past week we had a couple inches so the big waterfalls at least should be flowing quite decent. The flowers would be out. So would all the people. I figured I had to get up at 4AM to accomplish my goal of getting to the bottom of Beatson Falls on time. I did not think I’d be able to do this, but I did. I arrived at the trailhead at 6AM. There were already people here!!! I have literally never seen this before. I knew there would be a lot of people on this Saturday but not like this (and it was much worse later). I have been to Table Mountain before sunrise many times before and I’ve never seen a single soul. Only the killer cows are out this early (and they don’t like being disturbed before sunrise – believe me).

It is difficult hiking on Table Mountain in the dark. There is no trail, or so I thought. A lot has changed on Table Mountain since I was last here two years ago. My route to Beatson takes me to the bottom of Hollow Falls. I’ve always gone down to Hollow Falls on the west side of the creek and so that is what I did this time of course. I found out later there is now a very good trail down to the bottom of the east side of the creek. It would have been much faster. Well, it took quite awhile to get down to Hollow Falls on the west side in the dark, much longer than I expected. From there the new trail continues all the way to Beatson Falls. I did pick up this trail easily in the dark but by now it wasn’t so dark. I arrived at the Beatson Falls viewpoint at 7:30AM, thirty minutes late and past sunrise. When I arrived there were no people around but there were two killer cows standing at almost the exact place where I needed to take my photos of Beatson Falls. I could not get by them and I did not want them to charge at me right off the cliff (or vice versa). I gently coaxed them to move away and up the mountain. Thankfully, they listened to me. Just call me the cow whisperer.

I took my photos of Beatson Falls from the viewpoint. Now what should I do? There was certainly no possible way to get to the bottom of Beatson in less than 30 minutes (which is what I needed to do in order to beat the sun). It would be pointless to go down there now. I decided I should just cut my losses and head on back to the trailhead. At least I got a photo from the viewpoint.

But wait! What is this coming on the horizon?

Part II is coming soon …

The first time I came here, I did not go down to the bottom of the waterfall. I had thought that I would get a great view of it from the ridge but that turned out to be impossible. I went about halfway down the mountain and ran into a plethora of poison oak. I did get a partial view of the falls but I felt that I did not really bag the waterfall and I wanted to return again someday for another try.

This past weekend I returned with full intention of getting to the bottom of the waterfall.

It is a very long and difficult hike. There was a little bit of snow from the previous storm. I was surprised there was snow at all but it was only a couple inches, so it was not hard to walk through. When I got to the ridge I was already quite tired. I still had to go all the way down to the bottom, and then of course back up. I realize now why I went the wrong way the first time. It is very tricky to know the right direction to go and very easy to get lost. Once again, I started going down the wrong way (into the poison oak), but this time I corrected my direction and got over to where I was supposed to go down. There is less poison oak this way, but there still is a bit. It is STEEP! It is incredibly steep! I did not need to use my rope at all but the loose rocks made it very difficult and sketchy and there was quite a bit of slipping and sliding on the rocks, and hoping I would not start a landslide. It is a 600 ft. descent to the bottom. I made it down to the creek and still had to work my way upstream to the falls. This also was difficult and if there was a lot more water in the creek it would have been impossible. I had to climb up the rocks over a couple little cascades and had to put my feet in the water until I finally reached a good viewpoint of this glorious 212 ft. high waterfall. It was magnificent! Upper Shirttail Canyon Falls is into the bag machine!

I ate my lunch down at the waterfall. Relaxing. Resting. Finally it was time to climb back up the mountain. I was not looking forward to it. It was so hard. It took 3.5 hours to hike down and 3.5 hours to go back up to my car (plus about an hour down at the waterfall). Once again, I came across people shooting targets on the final section back to the car. They are so loud and ruined the last bit of my peaceful hike. I had hoped that since it was so late I would not see any of them, but no sir. And as usual I had to pick up all the trash they left behind, which (once again) was a lot. Why are these people so irresponsible. Argh.

Anyway, I had an amazing but very difficult day in Tahoe National Forest.

As of March 1, the snow pack is at 62% (northern CA), 69% (central Sierra), 45% (southern Sierra). Rainfall is at 50% (north), 51% (central), 39% (south). I saw some media reports of higher numbers, but where did they get those from? They are very inaccurate (and of course, people believe anything they see on the news). I think what they do is they take just a couple readings from one or two locations and then say that is the average snow pack in California. Anyway, the real snow pack is much more dismal than what the media says. But the real question is, will we get another miracle March? Rain is starting up again in March, but we need a heckuva lot of rain/snow. We have had ONE big storm this season. That is it! In a normal year, we would get 5 or 6 big storms. SIGH.

This is Stevenson Creek Falls in Sierra National Forest.

It is my son’s birthday today. Of course I would not want to miss that (or my wife would not want me to miss it to be more precise – kidding!), but I still wanted to go for a hike. Well, that is not a problem. Jadon would be sleeping in until noon anyway, so I could easily go for a hike in the morning. I did invite him to hike with me, but he said that would be the exact opposite of what he wants to do on his birthday (namely, relax and take it easy). Ah well, I tried.

So where should I go? I did consider going up to Oroville, but then I’d have to get up at 4AM. Umm, I don’t think so. I decided to go back to Rock Creek Falls.

I have been to Rock Creek Falls twice before. It is not a big waterfall (17 ft. high), but it is spectacular, one of the best in the Sierra foothills in my opinion. The first time I went the creek was in flood. The waterfall was absolutely incredible. The second time it was not in flood, but it was still amazing. I was thinking it would be flowing similar to that second time. Rock Creek is a very large creek. Well ….

I was the only one on the trail all day. Everyone else was at Table Mountain in Oroville (I’m not really kidding about that – it has been very busy there lately because of social media). The ticks were out and about. This is the first time I’ve seen them this year. I’m sure it won’t be the last. The poison oak was also out and about. Hopefully, I would avoid getting too close to it.

Once you get down to the creek, you have to go a short distance downstream to the waterfall. It is a bit tricky to get down to it, but it’s not too bad. The worst part is going through the poison oak. (in other words, I could not avoid getting too close to it). I was curious recently about someone who said they hiked this trail. They went all the way down to the bottom but did not go see the waterfall. They had no idea there was even a waterfall here. Really, people! Go to http://www.waterfallswest.com! How horrible to be so close to a beautiful waterfall and not even know it is there. I don’t know why you would even want to hike this trail if you are not going to the waterfall. As I said, this is one of the best in the foothills.

Well … Rock Creek Falls was not flowing quite as well as the last time I was here in 2011. It is still incredibly beautiful, no doubt about it, but I was definitely disappointed in the flow. We just have not had enough rain this year! Even though we had some recently, it just has not been enough. We are so far behind for this season, and the rest of February and into March is not looking very promising at the moment. More rain please. Much more rain please.

The first time I came to this waterfall was in May 2011. Stevenson Creek was raging. It was raging so much that the water was crashing over the bridge making it completely impossible to cross. The problem was that the best views of the waterfall are on the far side of the bridge, so I could only get a partial view of the falls from the near side. I vowed to return some day.

Ten years later …

It was time …

I’m not sure why I chose to go back this past weekend. You know, it just felt right, I guess. I knew the creek was flowing (and not raging).  It is a 4 hour drive from my home. That makes for a very long day.

I arrived at the trailhead at 1PM. The parking along the road was completely packed of cars. I expected to see some people for sure, but not this many! It was crazy! Ugh. Well, there was no choice. I had to continue with my plan. Hopefully, by the time I got to the falls everyone will have left and be on their way back. I took my mask with me (not something I normally do on a hike), expecting there to be just way too many people, but it really wasn’t like that. Everyone was well spread out, and the road is very wide so there is plenty of room and I did not feel that there were too many people on the trail.

When I arrived at the waterfall there were two other groups still there and they were in my way for taking photos, so I continued down the road a bit and climbed up the cliffs. I wanted to see if I could see the upper tier of the waterfall. I just could not get a full view of it, however. I could not climb up high enough as it became too cliffy and I could only see the very top of it. Well, it was a pretty good and unique viewpoint so I took a photo from up there. By the time I got back down to the bridge, everyone had left and I had it to myself. For a bit. Stevenson Creek Falls was flowing quite nice but I did expect there to be more flow in it. Nonetheless, I was able to get some good photos. Redemption achieved.

The litter along the road was awful. People left their toilet paper everywhere. People threw out their masks on the side of road (so some poor bird or animal can come along and get caught up in it). Why are people so bloody disgusting? Pack out your stupid trash, people. Especially your toilet paper! You should not be allowed to hike if you cannot pack our trash. Of course, no one else bothered to pick up any of the trash along the road (of the many people who hiked there this day). I suppose I should not blame them, but I do blame them. Everyone should be doing their part to clean up litter. I had to pick it all up myself.  So annoying. End rant.

Well anyway, Stevenson Creek Falls is definitely a beautiful sight. I have at least 3 more good photos other than this one and I spent a lot longer time here than I anticipated. Someone else eventually did come down to the waterfall as I was finishing up taking my photos. I’m not sure what he was doing, he was acting a bit strange; I think he was getting ready to fly a drone though I did not see him put one up. Anyway, whatever he was doing, he was friendly and worried that he was in my way of taking photos. Then another family came down as I was leaving, and I saw another couple coming down as well a bit later. All these people would be hiking back in the dark. As it was, I did not get back to my car until after dark as well. Usually I am the last one on the trail but not today. I really had a very pleasant hike and the walk back in the dusk was very peaceful and relaxing. It was a wonderful day in Sierra National Forest.