The world discovers a 400-foot waterfall in California

[mike hardeman]

Who's up for a 40-mile hike?

 

From this morning's AP:

 

WHISKEYTOWN, California (AP) -- Dick McDermott knows these parts as

well as any man can.

 

The 92-year-old used to earn a meager living mining the creeks that

meander through the deeply wooded hills. He has slogged through the

brush and hiked overgrown logging roads, hunting deer and gathering

wood for his homemade fiddles.

 

But McDermott says he's never laid eyes on the nearly 400-foot

waterfall that park officials recently discovered in a remote corner

of the Whiskeytown National Recreation Area, 43,000 acres of

wilderness in northern California.

 

"Sure, I was surprised," he said from his home in the park, where

he's lived for more than 70 years. "I've been all around that place,

I never seen 'em."

 

Until recently, very few had seen the roaring water that tumbles

three tiers before pouring neatly into Crystal Creek. That such a

spectacle should evade even park officials for nearly 40 years is

remarkable, said park superintendent Jim Milestone.

 

"It wasn't on a map, no one on the trail crew knew about it. People

who been here 27 years had never seen it," said Milestone, who is

leading an effort to clear a trail to the newly named Whiskeytown

Falls. It's expected to be finished by next summer.

 

There's no doubt the falls have had visitors over the years. The

Wintu Indians were probably the first, although archeologists have

so far found no traces on the site. A small band of loggers that

harvested Douglas firs in the early 1950s left behind a choker cable

and part of a bulldozer. A knife blade stuck in a nearby tree

indicates that others have also made the trek.

 

But for park officials, the falls were merely a rumor for many

years, said Russ Weatherbee, the wildlife biologist credited with

the find.

 

A couple years ago, Weatherbee was cleaning out a cabinet of old

maps when he stumbled across one from the 1960s marked with a note

reading "Whiskeytown falls" near Crystal Creek.

 

"I just decided to go looking for it. But I went in and hiked up and

never found anything," Weatherbee said. The map had been more than a

mile off.

 

In the spring of 2003, he was looking at global imaging system maps

on his computer when he saw a stretch in the creek that dropped in

altitude quickly with a sliver of white leading through it.

 

"I thought, 'That looks like white water to me,"' he said.

 

Since Weatherbee's discovery, a handful of rangers and park guests

have made the nearly two-mile hike to the falls. The trek veers off

a well-trodden trail and follows an eroding logging road through

thick brush and manzanita, an evergreen shrub found in the West.

 

It wasn't on a map, no one on the trail crew knew about it. People

who been here 27 years had never seen it.

-- Park superintendent Jim MilestoneThe falls are best viewed from a

spot Milestone calls Artist's Point, where a sweaty hiker can sit

and admire the rushing water from a rocky jut. Milestone said he

wants to bring groups of painters there for inspiration.

 

He also hopes Whiskeytown Falls will draw other people past the

park's popular lake -- a favorite for boaters and water-skiers --

and into the woods.

 

Not surprisingly, however, there are some who would prefer the falls

remain a secret. Milestone has even received an anonymous letter

criticizing him for inviting outsiders to overrun the park.

 

Dave Girard, an avid hiker who lives in Redding, said he's known

about the falls for about 10 years and has visited at least twice.

He said he doesn't oppose Milestone's efforts to open the falls to

visitors because he believes no matter how much hikers like to covet

their favorite places, "there's always someone who's been there

before you."

 

From his home on Grizzly Gulch a few miles from the falls' new

trailhead, McDermott also said he has no problem with officials

trying to draw more people into the park.

 

There are plenty of natural wonders out there for everybody, he

said. For example, he's seen a giant manzanita shrub with a three-

foot diameter stump, and he said he may be the only person to know

about it.

 

If park officials want to build a trail to it, however, they're on

their own.

 

"They're going to have find it themselves," he said.

 

 

[awahlster]

Waterfalls are being found all the time a real nice one in the 300' range was just rerached on Mt Hood in oregon turns out if you use binoculars from one spot on the hwy it can be seen but yet only one guy ever had he spent years trying to find it and finally did.

 

There are a couple of guys who spend all their free time in Yellowstone finding waterfalls I think they have found something over 100 waterfalls not mapped or known.

[jlemire]

I had no idea that there was anything left to discover! :)

 

Finding out that there are still areas of "wilderness" not truly discovered makes me very happy.

[mike hardeman]

I had heard that Tom Till had used some satellite images to find almost inaccessible spots in Utah on the Colorado Plateau, and then either 4WD or helicoptered in to get shots nobody had seen before. Looks like those satellite photos are the key to the "final frontiers" of landscape stuff!

[keith_van_hulle1]

Speaking of which, has anyone used Google Earth's 3d feature (which allows vertical to horizontal transition of your perspective) to assist in determining shooting locations?

[gloria_hopkins]

Keith, I just tried the GoogleEarth program. It is the COOLEST thing since ..... I even know what. It is the answer to one of my biggest problems as a painter: location and perspective, light angles, etc.

 

THANK YOU - you just made my whole day!!!

 

Gloria