How many bucket list waterfalls have I been to this year? One, two, three, four. All of them in Yosemite National Park: Eleanor Creek Falls, Ribbon Falls, Kendrick Falls, and … doo doo doo doo … bottom of Illilouette Falls. Four is quite a lot for one year, right? Obviously I’ve been on many other hikes, but I am talking about bucket lists, once in a lifetime hikes, at the top of my list.
I think I have probably mentioned before that I hate the new system in Yosemite where you need to get a day permit reservation in advance. That may work for some people but not me. I cannot plan months in advance when I am going to Yosemite on a certain random day in the future. I usually plan my hikes last minute. I don’t know what the weather is going to be like months in advance, or when I will be able to go on a certain hike, or even what hike I want to do until a few days before. They do release additional permits one week ahead of time, however, on Saturday I am usually hiking so I cannot log on to the computer and try and get a permit in the 10 minutes they are available before they all sell out. This past week, however, I was not doing anything on Saturday so I was actually able to log on and snag a day permit for the following weekend. Goodness gracious me.
I have often wondered why they say you need a permit at 5AM. It is so early! I could go in to the park before 5AM without a permit but that would mean I would have to drive to Yosemite Friday night and find a place to camp or sleep in my car. I don’t really like doing that too much. After 5AM you need to have that darn permit. I arrived at the gate at 5:55 AM. Permit in hand. The kiosk booth was not open! There was no one there! I suspect now that they do not even open until 6AM at the earliest. So why do they say 5AM? Next time I would not even need a permit. Would it be worth taking that chance? Hmmm.
There were a lot of people in the Valley. The Curry Village parking lot was completely full. The trailhead parking lot was almost full. It was only 6:30 AM! Holy crikey.
I got my stuff and headed up the trail. I thought the Ribbon Falls hike was very tough (it was). This hike was about three times as difficult. It is about the same length and about the same elevation gain, just a little more. But there is no trail! (unlike Ribbon). It is all off trail. There is brush. There are creek crossings. There is walking right up the creek bed. There is scrambling over huge boulders. There are a couple technical class three maneuvers to get over the huge rocks. It was at the limit of my skill level. It took 2 1/2 hours up and the same going back down. But I made it. The bottom of Illilouette Falls! I would not say it was spectacular but I would certainly say it was incredibly beautiful. (it would be spectacular at high flow but it’s not possible to do this in the spring). Bonus: I saw zero people. Everyone else was hiking the Mist Trail. It was a fantastic morning in Yosemite National Park.
After church on Sunday, Nekoda, Journey and I went up to Lake Tahoe for the afternoon.
The plan was to hike up to Grass Lake, swim, and see a couple new waterfalls. Well, we sort of did that.
We arrived at the Glen Alpine trailhead about 3PM. Journey was happy to be on the trail again. However, the first part is very rocky and I don’t think she liked walking on all the sharp rocks. She did all right, though, and it gets better after you pass Upper Glen Alpine Falls.
Speaking of, Upper Glen Alpine Falls was looking quite a bit sad. I have been here many times, at all times of year, including August, and I have never seen the creek this low. I was expecting all the waterfalls in the area to still be flowing well. It was quite disappointing and surprising and it would alter our hiking plan.
We made it to Grass Lake. The weather was overcast so we decided to go to Grass Lake Falls first. It is not exactly easy getting down to it and the last section involves scrambling over boulders. I was surprised about this as well, I thought it would be very easy. The boulders were very large, it was quite tricky scrambling, and it was not something Journey could do. Thankfully, Nekoda was with me so she could watch the dog while I went the rest of the way to the waterfall. With the low flow in the creek I could scramble directly up the creek bed to get right in front of the waterfall (I will not be doing that in the spring). Grass Lake Falls is 25 ft. high. It was not horrible but it would certainly be better at higher flows if you could get to it.
We went back up to the lake. I decided to skip the second new waterfall I had planned as I was 99% sure it would be completely dry given the current state of affairs. It started raining. The weather forecast? Zero percent chance of rain today. Zero percent, huh. I am pretty sure zero means zero. Nada. Not going to rain whatsoever. I had considered taking a quick dip in the lake but I was not going to do that in the rain. I am glad Nekoda decided to go in, however. Nothing was going to stop her.
The rain stopped, the sun came out a bit, Journey was refreshed with food and water, and we hiked back to the trailhead. We stopped at Upper Glen Alpine Falls for a quick photo and arrived back to the car just after sunset. It was a lovely afternoon in Desolation Wilderness.
I slept fairly well and was up at sunrise. The creek was much clearer in the morning as I suspected it would be so I scrambled down the steep and unstable slope to obtain water for drinking and for coffee. It was actually still quite a bit dirty (much more so than 6 years ago) but once it passed through my filter it was clean as a whistle.
While I was down there I walked up the creek bed to the upper falls to take a photo of it from the base. This was a new photo for me as I did not do this last time. Being down in this canyon is frankly a bit frightening. The cliffs are very unstable. I heard more than one rock fall during the night. Indeed as I was taking photos of the waterfall a large rock fell down the cliffs directly beside me. Thankfully it was on the other side of the creek and was not a danger (although it would have been if it was much bigger). Nonetheless it freaked me out and I jumped four feet in the air. I did not realize it until afterwards but there was a massive boulder sitting very precariously on the cliffs directly above where I was photographing. If that had fallen while I was down there? Well … you get the picture … Pancakes.
I climbed back up with water in tow and made some coffee for my breakfast and pancakes, enjoying the morning sun with view of the mountain and waterfalls. The hike back out was uneventful. My pack was much lighter since I was only carrying two liters of water and less food as well. I made it back to the car by 10:30am. The Kia Soul was still there. I’m just glad it wasn’t stuck somewhere along the road and blocking my path. I was home by 4pm. It was a marvelous two days in the Mt. Shasta Wilderness.
It was not my intention to do the exact same hike that I did in 2018 but sometimes things do not work out as you expect.
I wanted to return to Mt. Shasta. The biggest problem I was anticipating was smoke. Mt. Shasta was getting a double whammy. Smoke from the Park Fire as well as smoke from a fire in Oregon. It was caught right in the middle. The air quality was hovering between yellow and orange all week long. Not good. I did not want to drive 5 hours to the trailhead and then realize it was too smoky to hike. However, on Friday it seemed as though it might be clearing up for Saturday. I decided to take a chance.
I swear the road to Northgate trailhead is much worse than it was in 2018. I don’t remember it being that bad at all. It took a full hour to drive 8.5 miles. You do the math. The last 2 miles especially were extremely rough. I did not feel comfortable driving it, not so much due to the clearance, but mostly because I was afraid of getting a flat tire on all the very sharp rocks. Nonetheless, I made it to the trailhead successfully. I was shocked to see there were a couple low clearance cars here including a small Kia Soul. What the heck? There is no way on God’s green earth you should be driving a low clearance car to this trailhead. Maybe you could do it six years ago (indeed, I did see some small cars on that trip), but not anymore. If this small Kia did not bottom out multiple times on the drive to the trailhead and back I will eat my dirty socks. (not really, but I think it would be a safe bet).
Good news. There was no smoke! My entire hike was smoke free. That was a big relief to me.
Now as for why I wanted to return here, the first reason was this: (1) Coquette Falls. But Coquette Falls is dead, isn’t it? Yeah … you are right, it is dead … HOWEVER … I saw a photo that was taken from Sept. 2023. It was of Upper Coquette Falls and it had water. I pondered this for a long time. How is this possible? Is it because of the huge snow year we had in 2023 and it was flowing from regular snow melt? I am certain this was the case. I was last here in August of 2018, a drought year, and of course Coquette was dry. Since 2024 was an average snow year and since I was going more than a month earlier than the photo, I thought perhaps it was possible Coquette would still be flowing. When I came across a small stream along the way (dry six years ago) and it had decent water in it I thought I just might be in luck. Surely Coquette Creek is much bigger than this small stream. But alas, Coquette was completely dry. It was a bit disappointing even if it was not too surprising.
The second reason was this: (2) Whitney Creek waterfalls. My actual plan was to cross Bolam Creek and continue to Whitney Creek and camp there. HOWEVER … I was dead tired by the time I reached Bolam Creek. I could not continue any further. Is this hike really so difficult? It is only a 1500 ft. elevation gain and that section was all on trail. The elevation tops out at 8500 ft. so I don’t really think it was the high elevation that was getting to me (though perhaps a bit). I think I am just too much out of shape but also I had a very heavy pack and was carrying 5 liters of water as I anticipated not being able to filter water from the creeks. It was another 3 miles to Middle Whitney Falls where I was initially planning to camp. I am sure I could have made it there but then it would be an additional 2 miles and 1000 ft. elevation gain down to Whitney Falls and back which was the primary reason I wanted to go over to Whitney Creek. There is absolutely no way I would have been able to do that. Also I wanted to explore further UP Whitney Creek and there is also no way I could have done that either. I only had one night to spend. Thus, it seemed pointless to continue to Whitney so I decided to camp at Bolam Creek again and have an enjoyable afternoon.
The nice thing is that it was a very cloudy day so I could get all my photos of the Bolam waterfalls early and have a relaxing evening and even sleep in. First up was Bolam Creek Falls, 92 ft. high. As you can see the water was very dirty. Chocolate sauce! Yummy! It was definitely very interesting and quite different from six years ago and I’m not just referring to the chocolate water. I think a lot of that was caused from rain up on the mountain. It was a lot dirtier than last time I was here so I think it was more than just glacial melt. In addition to this the waterfall seemed different. It was more of a straight down plunge. It was more graceful (even with the dirty water). One thing that was very different was the blue-green color in the rock beside the waterfall. That was not there six years ago. A large chunk of rock had broken off revealing that blue-green color underneath. My geologist brother-in-law thinks it is some sort of hydrothermal alteration and magmatic flow. Finally, I think there was more water flowing six years ago so that could mean there is not as much glacier melting now (or left). Bolam Creek Falls was certainly very fascinating to see this year.
It is about a 400 ft. ascent from Bolam Creek Falls back to camp. I really struggled climbing up. I was so tired. When I returned to camp it started raining so I hung out in my tent awhile and chatted with my wife (I had cell service). After the rain stopped the sun came out and I made my dinner and enjoyed my evening. More to come …
It has been much too hot to hike this summer. There will be those loudly exclaiming it is all caused by global warming even though last year was a below average summer and next year probably will be as well. It is true that this July may end up being the hottest July on record but let’s not forget we have had many very hot summers in the distant past as well. The second reason I have not hiked this summer is because I have been injured and in much pain. I already mentioned hurting my neck in early May. It is still not healed. Since then I had a lot of pain in my arm, which I think was related. Then I had pain in my leg, which I think was not related. It was so painful I could not even stand up or walk. My sister said I am getting old. That is her professional diagnosis. She is a physical therapist. It is only this past week that I have started to feel better. My leg pain is completely gone. What the heck was wrong with it anyway? My neck is still not healed but it is much better. It is finally time to get hiking again!
I have been wanting to take Journey to Horsetail Falls for quite some time. It is the perfect summer hike. It is not very difficult. The waterfall flows strong in the summer. There are very few mosquitoes. I have never had any issues with them on this hike. Maybe a few around dusk but that is all. This time: zero mosquitoes. Not even one. At the last minute, I managed to talk Nekoda into coming along as well. I had to bribe her, saying I would buy her pizza afterwards. That works for me.
My weather app said it would be 78 degrees for the maximum temperature this day but when we arrived at the trailhead it was 88 degrees. That is too hot to hike, especially for Journey. The most we ever take her on a hike or walk is 85 degrees. Any more than that and it is too hot for her paws on the pavement (or in this case, on the granite rock). Nonetheless, we started the hike anyway. It would only be cooling down as we climbed up the mountain. The trail starts out with quite a bit of a climb and Journey was not too excited about it. It was hot. I think she wanted to turn around and go back to the car. Eventually the trail flattens out. She drank water and rested and then she was good for the rest of the hike. There are plenty of spots along the trail where she could dip her paws in the cool running creek.
We arrived at the waterfall. The nice thing about having Nekoda with me is I could have her watch Journey while I went around taking photos. I did not have to worry about Journey slipping and falling into the rushing waterfall. This is the 13th time I have come to Horsetail Falls (not counting the times I went further up the mountain). I always like to try to find different compositions of the waterfall whenever I come here. There are so many different options. As I look back at all my photos I see that this composition is not one I have captured before. I like it.
As we started our hike back down the mountain a man was coming up to the falls. He waved his arms in the air and yelled out “HAALLLOOOOOO”. If a certain episode of Seinfeld is coming into your mind right now, you are not far off. He had no shirt on, a long beard, and long hair braided in a ponytail. I said to Nekoda, “That must be Wild Willy”. We continued down the mountain. Journey was very happy now that she had rested, ate a big snack, and knew she was on her way back to the car. We decided to take a detour and stop at Lower Horsetail Falls. When we got there, lo and behold, Wild Willy was already there (talking to a friend). I said to Nekoda, “Did you see him pass us? I did not see him pass us. How could he be here already? It is not possible”. Nekoda said, “He is MOUNTAIN JESUS. He is a miracle man”. Yes. That is it! “HAALLLOOOOOO” he said again to us, waving his arms in the air.
Normally the Waterfall Madman is always the last one off the mountain at Horsetail Falls. Not today. Mountain Jesus was the last one off the mountain. It was a “miraculous” day in the Desolation Wilderness.
