It rained all day Saturday but I felt fine, because that meant the waterfalls would be roaring come Sunday, which is just how it turned out.

Mike & Kathy’s hiking club does waterfall hikes right after New Years. Last year I went with ’em to Uvas Canyon County Park, which is rich in cascades of creek water tumbling down steep hillsides. I tagged along with ’em to Uvas again this year to find the water flowing just fine

The trail from the parking lot comes up that bridge up there, then it’s a left turn onto the trail along side a burbling creek.

There’s a bit of a hill here at the beginning, just enough to get you warmed up. It felt like it was about 37 degrees on the canyon floor, which is nothing for people accustomed to actual winters, but it’s downright bone-chilling to us wimpy Californians.

The effect of falling water has to be experienced firsthand to appreciated; a photograph is merely a temptation.

My digicam has a setting designed to stop motion better than the normal automatic exposure. I’m pretty sure it was turned on for this shot. Waterfalls are a pain to photograph because the whitewater tends to get all blown out. Frankly, the person who leaves the camera home and just soaks up the scenery is probably better off than the shutterbug who’s so busy trying to find pretty pictures that he forgets why he came into the woods to begin with. Not that I know anybody who’s done this, mind you.

I have a real weakness for scenes of trees forming an arch over the trail.

Valerie, a newcomer to our group, wondering when somebody’s going to get around to taking her picture.

I generally fumble around till I find one of those spots where it’s impossible to take a bad picture; if I have any sense I take one.

Yeah, more rushing water, with trees doing that arch thing. Hard to go wrong here.

I heard somebody wondering how cold the water was, but I wasn’t about to find out. At least not on purpose.

Not far from here the trail crosses a stream, then heads up the hillside. Mike and I took an unscheduled detour which turned into an opportunity to climb right up the hillside for awhile in search of the trail. Fortunately it was there, but if it hadn’t been, we’d have had the consolation of knowing nobody’ll want us to lead the way next time.

Wonderful blue skies appear as we hike up out of the canyon.

Fungus!

This tree trunk looks like some really, really strong dude came along and gave it a really hard twist.

Another for the Dead Trees File.

Triple Falls is the last water feature on our hike. The trail up here is one of the steepest in the park and these falls are a bit underwhelming, but the amazing thing about this hike is: just about the time you’re sick of looking at waterfalls, the hike’s just about over.