Hiked Saturday, February 25. Apparently, it's been a week since my last post. That doesn't seem possible, yet, there, the evidence is. This hike was some three weeks before that last hike. It was after a wetter period than the last few weeks had been (although it's drizzling as I speak). Also, it was February, so my Federal Recreation Pass was still valid. It expired last month. I'm debating if I will renew it this month or wait until next month. Most likely that latter, since I probably won't have time to hike anywhere with a federal land fee for a while, maybe not even in April. Also, I have some state park passes that I will need to try to use by the end of next month, too.
With all that recent rain, the local waterfalls were running well. I'd visited those I could visit. Unfortunately, Fish Canyon falls is in a fire closure area. But I made many trips to Rubio Canyon this winter. Having posted those earlier shots, here, I just posted those from Thalehaha, and beyond.
This was after one of the first dry weeks in a while, so while the water was still flowing fine, I figured the land itself would have dried out enough to be more easily passable beyond Thalehaha.
It had been a while since I walked past this falls, and my memory of how to get beyond was murky.
Also, Rubio Canyon is very crumbly and I'm pretty sure the way beyond has shifted, somewhat. After all, I had previously determined that the trail to Grand Chasm falls was no longer safely passable. So I did eventually find the way to the drop down into what I call the middle falls area of Rubio Canyon, but it seemed harder to get to than I recalled.
BTW, it's always been a little crazy to get there. All that scrambling around among the brush had gotten several ticks attached to me, in the past. Fortunately, no ticks found me, today.
Because of the difficult path finding beyond the Thalehaha overlook, I don't generally recommend going beyond there. I, myself, also usually do not go beyond, in part, because there is rarely enough water flowing to make visiting these waterfalls worth the trip.
But, from Thalehaha, I continued to the northeast, eventually reaching the point with an overlook, down a steep ravine. You can walk part of the way down the ravine, at which point you will hopefully encounter ropes, tied to tree trunks and tree roots. The descent then becomes messier, especially if it's wet, as it often is, down here, even when water is not flowing.
At the bottom, I was in a narrow-bottom canyon, with cascades upstream, a generally unpassable way downstream, and a short but steep cliff across the narrow stream. I snapped some shots of the small waterfall or cascade here, then scrambled up to the trunk of a downed tree, which I used to help make my way partially up the cliff. Then I traversed to the top of the first cascade, and scambled up the next few cascades by climbing among the rocks and water. It's definitely class 3.
From the top of the last cascade, there's a small meadow, with trees in front of you, and a huge cliff beyond. The last of the "easily" accessible Rubio Canyon Falls, Leontine, comes down that cliff.
Probably four miles, roundtrip. A more detailed discussion of this area is provided on
Dan's Hiking Page.
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