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by Tom Stienstra
San Francisco Chronicle - April 28, 2002
California's most beautiful waterfalls are now sparkling to life, energized
by fresh snowmelt from a 10-day string of warm spring days.
The most dramatic setting is in Yosemite, of course, but even here you can find many surprises. Elsewhere, outside the park, the beauty can be just as dazzling, with the cascading drops of water glistening in silvers from the refracted light of a bright April sun.
What put things in motion is that temperatures hit the 70s in Yosemite this past week, sending melting snow from the high country rushing down crevices, headlong for the canyon rims. Even the obvious sights are breathtaking, crowned by ribbon-like 620-foot Bridalveil Falls, framed perfectly at Valley View as you enter Yosemite Valley, and 2,425-foot Yosemite Falls, best seen from the valley floor near the chapel.
In the next two weeks, many of the park's trails will be opening, a month ahead of the annual crush of vacation traffic. The Mist Trail is currently closed at Ice Cut, for instance, but hikers can detour on the John Muir Trail to make their way up to see 317-foot Vernal Falls, then beyond to 594-foot Nevada Falls at the foot of Liberty Dome.
There are many other great options. A lesser-known Yosemite freefall can be found in the Hetch Hetchy Canyon, 1,000-foot Wapama Falls, where it can feel like it is all just for you. This is somewhat off the beaten track in the northern section of the park (now clear of snow up to 7,000 feet), where you start hiking at the dam at Hetch Hetchy Reservoir. It is an easy tromp, 4.5- mile round trip, along the north rim of the lake (now half full) to the foot of the falls, a fantastic free-fall set next to the awesome, glacial-sculpted Kolana Rock.
Beyond Yosemite, I've seen some other gorgeous waterfalls spring to life in the past few weeks. The most dramatic of these is 640-foot Feather Falls, set just upstream of Lake Oroville on a feeder stream to the Middle Fork Feather, which has been roaring for two weeks. This has the best viewing deck of any waterfall in California, a platform set as if in mid-air over the canyon for a full-on facing view. Here are the best waterfalls for the next month in northern California:
-- Yosemite: 1. Bridalveil Falls; 2. Yosemite; 3. Wapama; 4. Nevada; 5. Illilouette; 6. Vernal; 7. Ribbon; 8. Silver Strand; 9. Sentinel; 10. Alder Creek. Touch-tone phone menu, (209) 372-0200.
-- Outside of Yosemite: 1. Feather Falls, Plumas National Forest, (530) 534- 6500; 2. Berry Creek (and Silver/Golden), Big Basin Redwoods State Park, (831) 338-8860; 3. Burney, McArthur-Burney Falls State Park, (530) 225-2065; 4. McWay, Julia Pfeiffer Burns State Park, (831) 667-2315; 5. Frazier (Gold Lake Highway cleared and open), Plumas National Forest, (530) 283-2050.
-- Others of major note: Horsetail Falls, Eldorado National Forest, (530) 644-6048; Middle (McCloud), Shasta-Trinity National Forest, (530) 964-2184; Cascade, Lake Tahoe Basin, (530) 573-2600; Alamere, Point Reyes National Seashore, (415) 464-5100; Potem, Shasta-Trinity National Forest, (530) 275- 1587.
-- Best secret: Unnamed (I call it Crystal Falls), on Little South Fork Creek (trailhead on Salmon River), Klamath National Forest, (530) 468-5351.
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