View of a Tule River trip
It’s hard to describe things up there. I’ll do my best to give you, as the late Chick Hearn would have said, “a words-eye view” (although I did throw in pictures to help out) of a day’s adventures. I have to give credit to “Sierra Nevada Natural History” revised edition for helping with the names of many plants and Google Maps Street View for some of the pictures.
You leave your house very early in the morning for the drive up into the mountains. At this time, in the dark and early morning light, LA, the Grapevine and the flatlands south of Porterville are even nice. You head over the Grapevine and then head north onto Highway 99 north, then to Highway 65 (Porterville Hwy) north to Porterville.
Left: A shot of the 5 freeway on the “Grapevine”. Right: A shot of the Porterville Hwy near Ducor, CA.
Thinking ahead about the gas station/market in Springville not being open, yet, you gas up at the Arco, just onto highway 190. You drive past Lake Success. It’s early and people aren’t out on the water, yet, with the exception of a few early morning fishermen in boats. The temp in Springville is cool right now and extremely peaceful as you drive through.
Did you know that Highway 190 starts in Tipton, west of Porterville? It goes basically east past Springville and into the Sierras. It turns south and then somewhere east of Slate Mountain it ends, kind of turning into the Great Western Divide Highway. That’s not really it, though. If you go east and a bit north over the Sierras out onto Highway 395, it ‘starts up’ again. In the town of Olancha, Highway 190 heads into Death Valley, finally ending at Highway 127 and State Line road about 10 miles west of Pahrump, Nevada..
At the east end of town, you turn left onto Springville/Milo Road at the beautiful Springville Ranch barn. After a few miles’ drive, then you turn right onto the road that actually goes up the mountain – Bear Creek Road or County Route 220. You cross the creek and head into the rolling hills with farms here and there, beautiful in its own right. As you wind your way past a private orchard or two (apples), past the California buckeye trees, past the wild berry vines (you’ll have to stop and pick some on the way out) and go a bit higher, you see the foliage change from oaks to more pines. Even though it’s mid-August, the temp outside is cool because the sun’s barely up, it’s only 7 am. The road is curvy and fun to drive a bit fast, but you slow down to enjoy the scenery. You even roll the windows down on both sides to take in the smell of the forest. In my opinion, the first time you roll the windows down on the drive up and smell the fresh pine and other forest smells is one of the best parts of the trip.
Left: I always thought Springville Ranch was very neat looking. Right: Springville-Milo Road is very picturesque.
Left: Bear Creek Road turn off. Middle: Part way up the road. Right: This is a view from part way up the mountain.
The road goes deeper into the forest and it’s mostly shadows now with a few patches of sunlight coming through. Better slow down, there’s a sharp curve up ahead. As you enter the curve you look up into the brush and see some mule deer watching you. You’ve gotta stop and get a picture or two. They’re already watching you, but when you stop, they get skittish and start to move away. To get them to freeze for a picture or two, you make a loud kissing sound and that stops them in their tracks and gets them to look in your direction. As you click off a couple of pictures of the beautiful doe, you realize that Miss America in all her glory isn’t even nearly as pretty. Mister America is standing guard there next to her. You don’t see the two fawns hiding in the thick foliage.
There’s Mrs. America. Mr. America was hiding in this picture.The 2 fawns can’t be seen, either.
You’re driving still higher. The air is getting cooler and even more pleasant that you thought it could. You come around a right-hand corner and there’s a fork in the road. A sign pointing to the right that says Moses Gulch and Hidden Falls that way. You go right and the pavement ends. The dirt road isn’t too bad. You drive along a bit more a notice a sequoia that twists as it goes up like the rifling in a gun barrel. It has a sign on it naming it Oliver Twist. A little further along and you’re thinking that you should be getting there soon, not impatient of the driving, you just want to get outside into it.
Left: Oliver Twist. Right: Looking up from below.
A left-hand turn and the shoulder of the road drops off to the right. Is that bacon you’re smelling and a camp fire? Sure ‘nuff. You’re up above Moses Gulch Campground. In my estimation, there are very few scents that smell as good as getting a whiff of a campfire and cooking food when you’re outdoors like that. It’s a totally wonderful smell. You might think a forest fire would smell good, but not really, it’s a different smell that when you do get a whiff of, is actually scary.
Finally, Hidden Falls! You park and get out. Stretching from the long drive, you realize how cool it is and think about putting jeans on instead of shorts. Nah, the hike will warm you up. It’s breath-taking out here. You walk to the road where the stream crosses under it and look. You can see why it’s called ‘Hidden Falls’. You click off a couple of pictures.
This is the pool at Hidden Falls parking area. The main trail upstream is on the right.
Back to the car and put on your hiking socks and boots. You do the final packing of your backpack. Lock your truck and head for the trail on the other side of the bridge. Here goes.
Walking up the trail from the parking area, you’re under a canopy of trees – different kinds of pines and giant sequoias. On the ground, there are lots of rocks, boulders, brushy undergrowth and forest duff. In the shadows, the browns, grays and blacks of the dirt and rocks are offset by the greens of the star moss, lady fern, horsetail, bracken fern and western sword fern with the white of cow parsnips and yarrow mixed in. All of these dark colors are then broken up by the occasional red-orange of pinedrops and the red of snow plants.
Hey, there’s whale rock and he’s not smoking a cigar this year!
You come around a bend in the trail and there’s a gap in the forest for some reason. You look at it and the treeless area is covered in green ferns; only green ferns. As you walk on, you wonder what caused that area to be treeless and why it only seems to have one or two types of ferns and not a bunch of wild flowers. You decide to leave the trail and head down to the stream. Be careful, some of this is very steep and hard to traverse. Loose dirt and loose rocks make the trip down an interesting event and a possible ankle twister and you’re now glad you tied your hiking boots tight around your ankles, so they don’t fill up with dirt and pebbles.
You finally get to somewhat level land, except for all of the rocks and boulders and you wind your way through them and the trees to get to the stream. You notice that with a little rock hopping and possibly getting your feet wet, you can get on a small island. It’s got no trees on it, just lots of green. You start across jumping from rock to rock and oops, one little slip and now you’re standing up to your knees in the stream. No biggie, the weather is warming up. The water is very cold, but it feels quite refreshing. You stop right there and dip your tin cup into it. The water is like ice and sweet. No bottled water tastes nearly this good. You make sure that you fill your canteen.
As you push through the 4 foot high brush, you realize the green with white is most likely cow parsnip. As you step through, you find out the hard way that there are wild raspberries and gooseberries with thorns mixed in. You get through that to find yourself in the midst of a small sandy area surrounded by wandering daisies, woolly sunflowers, porterella, blazing stars, leopard lilies, blue-eyed grass, columbines and common monkey flowers. This small explosion of white, lavender, purple, orange, red and yellow mixed in with the greens and the beige of the sand takes your breath away. Full sun, water and a bit of sand makes the colors go crazy. You’re really glad that you brought your camera because you don’t want to miss this.
Right in the middle of this little sand bar, you notice a shape and color you haven’t seen, yet – dark brown and lumpy. Is that berries in the middle of it? Uh-oh, it’s fairly fresh bear scat. You look all around double checking that the bear that did this isn’t within view. Not to worry, you typically don’t see bears around here during the daytime, only at night.
You’ve taken enough pictures on this little island to get rested up. You cross the stream again, not bothering to go over it, but through it, since you’re already wet (and the water feels really good). You scramble back up to the trail and continue on. You hike for a while longer and decide that another trip down to the stream is called for. You head down, being careful not to hurt yourself. A slight veer left to avoid a house-sized boulder puts you at the top of a mini-waterfall. It’s about 6 feet wide and only drops about 3 feet, but it’s gorgeous. It’s at the top of a large pool about 30 feet around and probably no deeper than 3-4 feet. Behind you is the house-sized boulder; on your left is the very steep bank with a few large sequoias; on the right are several pines and sequoias; and at the bottom of the pool is an old fallen sequoia. It’s been down for so long, it’s slick with no bark on it. It’s low enough to the ground that you’d get quite wet if you tried to go under it and it is way too large to jump or even climb over. You’re surrounded by shade and shadows except for the 2-3 foot circle of light in the middle of the pool. Is there a more peaceful spot? None comes to mind right now.
There’s water and you’ve got a fly rod, so you put it together and string the line. You tie on a 9’ 4X leader and flip a #16 mosquito out into the sunny spot. BAM! A little rainbow trout grabs it. A couple more casts, a couple more fish and then the fish seem to have disappeared. Instead of giving up, you tie on a #16 Goddard caddis and heave it out there, thinking you’ll be lucky to get anything on it. WHAM! Another little rainbow grabs it. A few more fish and you decide to try an Adams Irresistible – same story. The little trout are extremely aggressive and fun to catch. For giggles, you try a #12 black ant. It’s a bit larger than the others, but it’s the only size of black ant you have in your fly boxes. The good thing, though, is that it’s about the same size as the actual black ants you’re seeing on the rocks. A light breeze kicks up just as you cast causing the ant to go onto a rock. You give it a gentle tug to get it to fall into the water. As it starts falling, a little rainbow trout jumps out of the water and nabs the ant right off of the rock! WOW!
This stream is full of little bows, brooks and downstream, browns. Way upstream, you might get a golden or two.
Just for the heck of it, you try a #10 streamer – a Muddler Minnow. It’s similar in color, but looks like a chicken compared to the other flies you’ve been throwing out there. You’re thinking that there’s no way this fly will work, it’s nearly as large as the fish. You chuck it about 1/2 way across the pool and you see rapid movement. You’re thinking you probably scared the fish away with this large fly, but as you look, you notice that the movement started at the far end of the pool and it’s a fish. He blasts through the water and hits that Muddler with all the force an 8” trout can muster. You’re speechless at this point.
Left: Mosquito Next: Goddard Caddis Center: Adams Irresistible Next: Black Ant Right: Muddler Minnow
In all, you’ve spent an hour at that pool, completely contented in throwing different flies and just sitting there taking in the sights, sounds, smells and especially the feelings. All the pictures you’ve taken just don’t capture everything, but, it’s time to move on. Again, you scramble back up to the trail. You’ve now hiked up past the 2nd crossing – the place where the trail crosses the stream the second time. You continue on. Shortly after, you come to a big clearing on the right. It slopes gently upward all the way to the summit of the mountain. This clearing looks like a 100 foot wide, green river spotted with yellows, whites, purples and oranges flowing out of the rocky summit right down to where you’re standing. It’s apparent that an ancient landslide formed this river of color. There’s a small creek flowing right down the middle of it.
Looking up into this meadow, you see what looks like a semi-flat spot. It seems to have a bit less vegetation than all the surrounding area. You’re thinking that if it’s big enough for a tent or even just a ground cloth and sleeping bag, you’d spend the night there. You follow this little creek up to that point and find out that there’s just enough room. You’re so elated that you can set up camp here, that you get started in a rush. No need for a tent, the weather’s nice and there aren’t too many mosquitos out…..yet. You even have room for a very small fire. The surroundings are so green and moist that you don’t really need to worry about starting a forest fire, but being smart you worry about that very thing and keep the fire small.
You then realize that you need to put your food in the bear-proof container you brought and hang it from a tree on the edge of the meadow. The branch has to be high enough to not be accessible from the ground. It also has to be small enough that a bear won’t climb out on it to get the food, but large enough that the bear can’t break it off. You find the perfect tree and branch and hang your food.
As you head back to your little spot, the breeze comes up from the stream about a 1/4 mile down from you. You get a whiff of water, pine, dirt, campfire smoke and fresh plants all mixed together. As you noticed this morning, it’s one of the nicest smells you’ll ever encounter. Somewhere, someone is cooking and that’s on the breeze, as well.
You’ve got your small fire going and set up your portable, propane cook stove and heat some water for your freeze dried meal. The buzzing sounds tell you it’s time for Deep Woods Off because the mosquitos are out in force now. But not all of the buzzing is from mosquitos. As you cook, you notice yellow and black bees around you – not bumble bees or bees that will sting, but they seem only interested in your food. You decide to leave a small piece of meat on a rock to see what they’ll do. They converge on it, cutting small pieces off with their mandibles and flying off with the booty. Amazing. Yeah, this just ‘happened’ into existence.
It’s getting dark and you let your fire go out. You’re tired. It was a long but wonderful day. As you lay back, you look up. You feast your eyes on countless stars. Hey, over there, a shooting star! As you drift to sleep, you have the epiphany that you’re truly blessed to be in such a beautiful spot. You wonder if there can be such another excellent day – yes, tomorrow will be. You thank God for creating all of this for you.
I hope you can picture all of this, I certainly can, of course, I’ve been there. I still get misty-eyed thinking of all the good times spent up there.
“Our campsite” at Moses Gulch Campground. It’s about 7:30 pm, no fire or lantern lit, yet