Red Rock Falls (Lewis Creek Trail, part 2)

Our hike Saturday along Lewis Creek Trail was very rewarding— not just because hiking along the creek was surprisingly mellow (previous blog), but because of the many waterfalls we saw. About 1.5 miles up from the trailhead was a short spur to Red Rock Falls.



The spur trail descends to the rocky lip of Red Rock Falls. It's about a 20' drop to the pools below. While several people sunned themselves on the rock up here, we followed a second spur trail down to the bottom of the falls.



We sat for a while at the edge of the pool below the falls. I worked for a bit with the photography gear I'd brought. I continued testing the new cheapo lens I bought a few weeks ago. It did well... and it weighs so much less than "The Brick" it replaces. In the pic above I screwed on a circular polarizing filter. A technical explanation for what it does gets quickly deep into physics. A layperson's description is that it darkens the sky, darkens shiny reflections (like off glass, metal, and water), and accentuates the greens and yellows of nature. You can see those effects on the colors in the pic above.



I also took the obligatory slow-motion water picture. Actually I took several such pictures. I'll share just one (above) since they're all similar as I was experimenting with slight differences in settings.

This pic is not with my expensive, fancy-ass, Instagram-famous, name-brand neutral density filter. That filter was among the things stolen when our car was robbed in Hawaii last month. As was the very expensive "brick" lens it fit. That's why I'm testing out this cheapo replacement. With its smaller size I have some older filters that fit it, like the CPL two frames above and a 6-stop ND used in this picture, immediately above. Six stops means the filter reduces the light coming into the camera to 1/64 normal. That plus another trick or two allowed me to shoot that pic of the falls at 1/4 second exposure in midday sun.

The lenses and filters weren't the only photographic gear I made a point of using. With the two preceding pictures plus the one that follows, I used a tripod. It's a nice, lightweight tripod my partner and MIL got me a few years ago. As light as it is, it's still a chore to carry. So when I choose to carry it I make damn sure to use it. 😅



Before we left another couple came down from the top of the falls. They picked a different patch of turf to sit out on (far right, above) so we weren't crowding each other. Still, it was about time for us to leave anyway. There'd actually be plenty more falls back past our trailhead in the other direction!

Update: continue reading with Corlieu Falls in part 3!

Memorial Day Weekend plans: Sedona!

"Where should we go for Memorial Day?" That's a question I've mulled several times recently. Hawk and I finally made a call on it Thursday night, and I booked plans Friday. We're going to Sedona, Arizona!

Sedona is a resort town in the red rocks region of Arizona. It's about 2 hours north of Phoenix by car and 2 hours south of the Grand Canyon. We'll fly to Phoenix after work on Friday 5/27, crash in an inexpensive hotel near the airport since we're arriving after 11pm, then drive to Sedona Saturday morning. In Sedona we've picked a nice hotel, the Hilton Sedona Resort. We'll be there through Tuesday; we've taken that day off from work to make a 4-day weekend. We'll fly home Tuesday night 5/31.

As I booked these plans I considered whether it's worth going to Sedona ``again''. I felt like we were there... maybe 5 years ago? But then I checked my blog and realized it's been 9 years. Our last visit was in 2013. And that visit got stunted because I got sick with a cold during the trip. Our last real trip to Sedona, one where I was able to do the things I actually wanted to do, was in 2006. So yeah, it's time to go back!

Corlieu Falls (Lewis Creek Tral, part 3)

When we visited the Lewis Creek Trail Saturday we started in the middle. The middle seems like a strange place to start, but it's possible here because there are 3 entry points to the trai: upper, middle, and lower. And the thing about starting in the middle is that we get to hike both ways. We hiked from the middle trailhead north, up to Red Rock Falls. Then we retraced our steps to the junction and hiked the other way, south to Corlieu Falls.



When we visited this falls on a similar hike several years ago we didn't know it was called Corlieu Falls. I dubbed it Bigger Lewis Creek Falls because, well, it was bigger than Red Rock Falls. ...Which I also didn't kow was called Red Rock Falls, so I called it Smaller Lewis Creek Falls. Yup, Bigger and Smaller; those were the names I went with. 😅



This trip we discovered more than just the name, Corlieu Falls. We discovered that Corlieu Falls actually has upper, middle, and lower sections unto itself. The falls we sat at the base of 4 years ago were Middle Corlieu Falls. We'd gone around the upper falls— which are shown in the 2 pics above— without realizing what we'd missed!

Well, Upper Corlieu isn't much to sit at and watch. Mostly that's because there really isn't anywhere to sit at its base. 😂 The best vantage is from a narrow perch on the steep use trail down the canyon from the main trail. There are no guide ropes here to help you like there are at the middle falls.

Speaking of Middle Corlieu Falls....



Yup, 4 years later it's still there. 🤣 And the really helpful ropes to get to the base are still there, too. Though a really large redwood tree has fallen across the pool at the base, making it a lot hard to enjoy. I'm actually atop the redwood as I shot the pic above. And for sense of scale, that falls is about 80' tall. So even laying on its side, that tree is big.

The existence of an upper and a middle implies a lower, right? I mean, unless this is an American restaurant where there are two sizes pizza, large and medium, or 3 sizes of soda, medium, large, and extra large. ...Okay, so maybe Red Rock Falls should be renamed Extra Upper Corlieu Falls? 😂 Haha, well, no need for stupid restaurant adjectives here, as there actually is a Lower Corlieu Falls.



This picture (above) shows all three of the tiers. The lower falls is in the foreground, in deep shade. Middle falls is in the middle. You can see that fallen tree I wrote about it front of it. Above that, kind of hard to make out in the distance but still visible in this picture, is the upper falls. Plus there are actually more cascades below this point. Call those Extra Lower Corlieu Falls, or maybe Kids Size Corlieu Falls. Altogether these falls drop more than 200'.