Emerald Pools Falls
Emerald Pools Falls
Sierra County, California
Description
Click to view photo(s)
Emerald Pools Falls is a collection of many small cascades in a popular summer swimming section of the South Yuba River below Lake Spaulding. However, if you're here in the summer don't expect the river to be high enough to show off this collection of cascades. A dam at Lake Spaulding controls the amount of water in the South Yuba River here in which case flows are only interesting (with respect to the waterfalls) between about mid-May and mid-July. However, during years that saw large snowfall amounts (like 2011) the flows can be higher outside of this range. For real-time estimated flows visit dreamflows.com by clicking here. Because of the steep canyon surrounding the South Yuba here and the possibility of unannounced dramatic increase in flow, this can be a dangerous place. As always when visiting waterfalls, use common sense and travel at your own risk.
Location
Upper Emerald Pools Falls: 39.3165 N, 120.6610 W
Middle Emerald Pools Falls: 39.3195 N, 120.6619 W
Lower Emerald Pools Falls: 39.3211 N, 120.6634 W
USGS Topo: Blue Canyon
Directions
To get to these waterfalls, I parked alongside the Bowman Lake Rd at a trailhead (39.3147 N, 120.6608 W). I began by following the trail but quickly left it and headed NW. This route takes you along the eastern and northern side of the small hill immediately West of the trailhead (involves traversing over very steep terrain). A better way (which I may try in the future and would recommend over than the way I went) may be to skirt the western side of this hill and follow a small wash down to the river. Which ever way you go it is going to be steep and therefore dangerous (travel at your own risk). As I made my way on the northern side of the hill I stopped for a view of the four (at least) tiers of the Upper Falls. Continuing on, as I descended north of the hill I passed through a stand of trees before coming to a clearing immediately West of the river (upstream of the lower falls). To get to the Lower Falls, I continued north until I came up to the river where it starts to turn west and could hear the waterfall. I scouted out a few places downstream to take pictures. There are a couple of places above the river to take pictures but the best views are down next to the river. However, this involves a very steep and very dangerous climb down, therefore it is highly discouraged (there is a memorial for a person who I presume died here just downstream from this waterfall on the south side of the river, with the warning "Don't Jump"). Unfortunately, it is pretty much impossible to get a picture of the entire waterall. It is possible to get a view right in front of the waterfall with some interesting rocks surrounding it but again, as far as I could tell, the entire waterfall could not be photographed. Another option for visiting the Lower Falls is to view it from the northern side of the river. I have not tried this, but I assume you would park off of the Bowman Lake Rd directly east of the waterfall and find your way down (still steep). To get to the Upper Falls (highly discouraged route), I left the Lower Falls and walked South to the wash just West of the hill and began to climb up. I turned to the East when I was more than halfway up the hill and traversed North of the hill (very steep). I then made my way back down towards the river by using all four of my extremities (I passed by and over a lot of remnant wood from the old flume that used to run through this section of the canyon; Blue Tent or Omega Flume?). I found a nice, mostly flat section immediately downstream of the fourth tier of the waterfall to take pictures. This canyon is very steep and dangerous and I highly discourage anyone from trying to follow what I did. One slip is all it would take to suffer serious injury or death. An alternate viewpoint is immediately upstream (south) of the island in the river (where the river bifurcates between the Upper and Lower Falls). The above photo shows the third and fourth major tiers of the Upper Falls with a couple more smaller tiers in the distance. The climb (literally) up and out of the canyon (to the south) took me ~10-15 minutes, which includes stopping a couple of times to take pictures of the surroundings. There is also a few tiers of a "Middle" Falls, obviously between the Upper and Lower Falls but the sun was shining on them when I was there so the picture didn't turn out very well. I'll have to return in the future. One other factor you should consider is whether or not water is being released from the dam upstream. When I visited this waterfall there was a little water being released (~120 cfs), however the next day the flow was turned off (~12 cfs). In the last three years flows have gotten as high as 6000+ cfs. Therefore, be careful if you decide to visit this waterfall and keep in mind that the dam may, without warning, release more water (see the current flows here).
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