Leon Turnbull Photography

Here is one more from Palisade Falls, my big backpacking trip down into the North Fork American River canyon a couple weeks ago.

This last weekend I tried to get into Wildcat Canyon Falls again. The last time I was there was in 2007, 11 years ago. I did not make it this time. I got almost all the way down there, I could see one of the waterfalls off in the distance, but then I hit a wall of brush. For the last half mile or more, there was a mound of thick brush, at least 6 feet tall, and completely impassable. Eleven years ago, there was no brush at all. Unbelievable and incredible and so disappointing.

This is now the fifth trail I have tried into the North Fork American River in the last couple years, all of which are now impassable. American River Trail: impassable, Beacroft Trail: impassable, Mumford Bar Trail: almost impassable, Big Granite Trail: impassable, and Wildcat Canyon Trail: impassable. These used to be all excellent trails, they are my favorite trails in the world, and now you cannot hike them at all. Tahoe National Forest has not done anything to maintain these trails whatsoever, and now you cannot even hike them. What a horrible shame. The only trails that are still good are the Palisade Trail, and Sailor Flat Trail (I think – but I have not hiked this one recently). I could very well be wrong, but I do not really sense such a huge issue for trails in other National Forests, but only in Tahoe National Forest.

I am at a loss what to do; however, I’ve been thinking about it. I thought maybe I should go in and clear them by myself, but that would be impossible. One person hacking down a wall of brush 6 feet high for a half mile? That would be senseless. One thing I am doing is sending a letter to Tahoe National Forest about it, and I urge you all to do the same thing. These trails need to be restored. I am even going to volunteer to help them do it. I am waiting for a response from them. We will see what happens, but I am sure the excuse will be no funds or some such thing. Sigh.

So have you watched the new Netflix series Lost In Space? I have recently just finished watching season one. I love it! I think it is better than Stranger Things (is that blasphemy?). I never watched the original series so I have no comparison, but I really like this new show. The famous saying in the series is when the robot says “danger, Will Robinson”. So what does that have to do with this waterfall???

Well … first off, this waterfall is Little Robinsons Valley Falls, for which the trail starts at Robinsons Flat. Robinson, get it? I drove up here on Saturday afternoon, thinking that I would not be able to drive all the way up to Robinsons Flat. The Tahoe NF office was saying I could only drive to Ford Point. I thought that would be highly unlikely, they are always completely inaccurate at Tahoe National Forest; I was expecting to drive to Tadpole and walk from there. There was no snow at Tadpole, so I kept on driving. On Canada Hill, there was one big snow patch, for which I was very leery of driving through. Indeed, I was not going to attempt it. However, I saw a small truck without 4 wheel drive coming down the hill. He had no problems. Heck, if he can make it, then surely so can I. I have 4 wheel drive! It was not very difficult to drive through that patch, and after that, the road was “mostly” clear all the way to Robinsons Flat. Perfect! This would save me 3 miles (one way) of hiking. There was quite a bit of snow at Robinsons Flat, and I was hiking in it to start with, but I was not sinking in (much), so I did not need to use my snowshoes. Even though there were other cars that had driven up here, mine were the only foot tracks going down the trail. Except for the bears and coyotes, that is.

I was not planning to go to Little Robinsons Valley Falls. I wanted to continue hiking past it, down the canyon. For some reason, I thought there would not be much elevation loss on this hike, only a couple hundred feet or so. I did not check my maps closely enough. It was about 1000 ft. elevation loss. Not only that, the hike was much longer than anticipated because apparently the trail has been re-routed to avoid some difficult sections. Oh well, I was not concerned about all that. I had lots of time. It was an awesome day, and an awesome hike.

When I got down to where the waterfall should be, however, I found no waterfall. Actually, there was one but it was just a small one. The terrain was very cliffy. The rocks were crumbly and loose, with steep dropoffs. I went down quite a way, but I could not get all the way down to creek level. Danger, Will Robinson! It was not worth the risk for such a small waterfall, so I decided to turn back.

I ate my food, then hiked back up the trail. When I got back to the turnoff for Little Robinsons Valley Falls, I hummed and hawed.  Should I go down to it or not? I had 30 minutes until dark. It was just enough time (barely) to hike down to the falls and back. I decided to go down. I took a quick shot of the upper tier, but there was no time to go to the lower tier. I got back to the car just as it was getting dark. It was a fantastic evening in Little Robinsons Valley.

This is the middle tier of Palisade Creek Falls. It is a massive 3 tiered waterfall. It is magnificent. Only the middle tier is easily accessible and photographable, however. I wanted to photograph the other two tiers, but I just could not find any good viewpoints for either of them.

Top tier of Upper Palisade Creek Falls.