Saturday the Rest of the Way

What comes after Friday Night Halfway? Saturday the Rest of the Way! After driving to Fresno on Friday night we'd drive the rest of the way up into the Sierra Nevadas on Saturday morning, do two planned hikes, and drive all the way home that night.

Saturday morning began just before our 6:30am alarms. We'd set them early to allow ourselves the chance to maximize the day. I awoke, refreshed, a few minutes before my alarm and got out of bed to begin my morning routine. That was surprising because all this past week I've struggled with my 6:45am workday alarm, often only scraping myself out of bed at 7:30 and still feeling groggy. All I can figure is I went to bed just after 10 Friday night so I'd gotten a solid 8 hours. This past week I've been staying up past 11pm or even past midnight working on my new D&D game.

Being up early meant seeing the sun rise. The sky was already beginning to get light around 6:30. A few minutes before 7am I watched the sun break over the Sierra Nevada mountains to the east. It was touching that as I prepared to face the day, the day prepared to face me.

We packed our bags and got ready for the day in no particular rush. We set our alarms at 6:30 not so that we could be rolling by 7am but so that we could take it easy and still be out by 8. But then we made three stops almost right away: two for food, and one for gas. There was a Costco 1/2 mile from our hotel for cheap gas!



Our route for the morning was simple in concept: Get on highway 168 and drive 61 miles to the dirt access road to the falls. As we drove through the town of Clovis before getting back on the highway we passed through the charming downtown area— all 4 blocks of it. 😅 Suspended over the street is a green sign, "Clovis Gateway to the Sierras". Well, that's accurate for us. Clovis was our Friday Night Halfway and thus our gateway to the Sierras today.

The drive up into the Sierras was pleasant. ...Well, once we got into the Sierras it was pleasant. The drive through the Central Valley and the western foothills was miles of brown grass beneath an alarmingly smoggy sky. Once we started climbing into the mountains— passing roadside markers for 2,000'... 3,000'... 4,000'... 5,000' and beyond— the sky became clearer blue. By the time we reached Shaver Lake at elev. 5500 or so we could look back down on the massive Central Valley below us and see... a bowl of cloudy brown soup, basically. 😳🤢😷

Shaver Lake wasn't the end of the drive. No, we continued on over the Tamarack Ridge at elev. 7,582' and then down toward Huntington Lake beyond it. From near Huntington it was back up, up, up on the dirt road to the falls. At the trailhead we were at elev. 7,585'.



Time to hike!

Update: pictures from Rancheria Falls!

Rancheria Falls. 36 Hours from Idea to Reality.

We arrived at the trailhead for Rancheria Falls Saturday morning around 9:45am and were hiking by 10. Nominally the hike was an easy one; just 1.6 miles round trip and with an elevation gain of about 200'. On top of that, the trail was in good condition— wide and clear. It is designated a National Recreation Trail, so that's unsurprising. What was surprising, momentarily, was how hard I labored going up the trail.

"Oh, right," I thought to myself after a moment, "I'm at 7,600' elevation. Almost a mile and a half above sea level!" I walked at a slower pace for my poor, oxygen starved blood cells and muscles and didn't begrudge them a few rest breaks on the way up the hill.

Fortunately the trail is pretty easy, the rarefied air notwithstanding. After about 20 minutes of walking an incredible waterfalls came into view as we rounded a bend.



Rancheria Falls drops at least 80' in three quick tiers followed by more than 150' of smaller drops and cascades lower down in the canyon. The photo above doesn't even show all of it!

Fortunately the trail doesn't stop here at this viewpoint. And actually this viewpoint is a bit off the trail. 😅 We scrambled down to some rocks to get a better, unobstructed view of the falls. The trail goes to a spot near the bottom of the big part of the falls. From there a few use trails scramble a bit higher.



There were only maybe 6-8 people on the trail at this time. Most of them were out here, sunning themselves on rocks or sitting down for a rest. Not that I blame them! We picked spots so as not to crowd people enjoying the falls.



We spent a while scrambling over and sitting atop various rocks here next to the upper tier of Rancheria Falls. The whole time we were pleased at how big full the falls is. ...Actually pleased is a weaksauce word. We were astonished at how big and full the falls is! Astonished at the size, because somehow this falls had never been on our radar until 36 hours earlier. And astonished at the fullness this late in the season. As we started the trail I was worried that we'd come all this way just to see it reduced to a trickle.

BTW, "36 hours earlier" is not an exaggeration. All week long Hawk and I were saying to each other, "Let's do a Friday Night Halfway trip and get up into the mountains on Saturday." Then we putting off planning several nights in a row. Late Thursday evening, my eyes tired and knowing I'd rather go to sleep, I sat down with a few hiking guides to find something because I figured it was "now or never". I narrowed my search to an area I thought could be promising and... *boom!*... in the area next to it 😅 this hike practically leapt off the page. Now, 36 hours later, here we are.

In beauty I walk.

Update: "Road Closed" won't keep us from Dinkey Creek Falls!

Road Closed to Dinkey Lakes? Challenge Accepted!

In my previous blog I described how our plans came together at the last minute (well, 36 hours ahead of actually getting there) to hike Rancheria Falls. It would be a lot of driving just to hike one short hike. Thus I looked for ways to make the trip a two-fer. There was another waterfalls hike nearby, on the first bit of the Dinkey Lakes Loop. It was in just the right place to be a two-fer. The only problem? AllTrails.com says it is CLOSED.

I'm glad I read for more details because it's not actually the trail that's closed, it's the dirt road getting there. When I see that a road is closed, and I'm planning to go there in my 4x4 already, I think....



Seriously, I've driven around "ROAD CLOSED" signs several times in my 4x4. I've even driven around a "BRIDGE OUT AHEAD" sign once. And yes, that time I drove down the embankment, through the water, and back up the other side!

But this trek didn't require anything like that. There are other roads to get there. There's a whole network of dirt 4x4 roads in the area. A helpful post on the website clued me in to where to start looking, and I mapped it out.



We drove back west about 10 miles from the turnoff for Rancheria Falls, to the top of the Tamarack Ridge. From there a well-marked trailhead sat on the side of the road, beyond a large parking lot full of pick-up trucks with empty trailers. The area is popular with people driving XUVs. (XUVs are extreme ATVs. If you're not sure what that means, imagine a golf cart with 4 wheel drive that goes stupid, dangerously fast.)

The paved road ended just beyond the sign in the photo above. From there it was dirt roads the next 9 miles. The first 8 miles were passable by a regular street vehicle, but the last mile— after we joined with the the road that was closed lower down the mountain— definitely required high clearance. I'm pretty sure we hiked Dinkey Lakes once before, umpteen or more years ago, but I don't remember the last mile of road being that rough.



We rolled up to the Dinkey Lakes trailhead at 1pm. The Dinkey Lakes Loop is an amazing 7 mile trail in the high Sierra. From here at the trail signpost it looks... well, dinky. I'm glad I've been here before so as not to feel rooked after the tough drive.

Our plan wasn't to hike the whole 7 mile loop but only to visit a waterfalls near the start and then maybe hike up to the first lake and back. BTW, as much as hiking at Rancheria Falls was tough because of the elevation, here it's even higher, 8,600' (2.6 km) at the trailhead.

Update: keep reading as we visit... one of... the Dinkey Creek Falls.