Hiking Report: Blackstar Canyon Waterfalls Raging

http://www.google.com/#hl=en&source...+hikes&aq=o&aqi=&aql=&oq=&fp=f8bc9ba0718e9555

 

Sounds like you just met the infamous Art Tuttle.

 

Hike report- 2-12-10

hey this is from last month on my second hike to the falls. Im also going this saturday at 9AM. We pretty much did the same creek route everyone else does, and I noticed a lot of rockfall happened during the winter storms. One place the entire wall sheared off piling the canyon with huge boulders that had to be climbed. What was interesting is that instead of backtracking down the creek, we climbed up the ultra steep ravine to the right of the falls untill we got to the top of the falls, and then traversed across to blackstar canyon road and then just took the road all the way down. It is an incredibly steep and dangerous route, and shouldn't be attempted unless you are wearing protective clothing and I had to use my machete numerous times to cut through the solid mass of chapparal. anyways here are some pics:
The concrete tubes at the beginning. the creek is directly off to the right. That little trail in the middle is misleading, i took it my first time trying to find the falls.

Then nature of the boulders in the canyon that had to be climbed.

Inside the mine shaft

After bushwhacking to the the top of the falls, looking back down the canyon where we came.


Oh and btw, EVERY SINGLE TIME ive hiked the route, at least one dude in a pickup harasses us while we were leaving. The most recent time, he said since our shoes were muddy we obviously had been somewhere we shouldn't have been.

 

Important note: wearing shorts and a tee shirt like I am in the photos is a huge mistake. I suffered from poison oak for about two weeks of hell after i got home.

 

That guy would be Art Tuttle. Just tell him thanks and be on your way. He never knows what to do with that kind of response.

 

Except for the times he eats your heart with a spoon. But he hasn't done that for a while.



oh, wait...

 

I finally got a GPS read at the waterfall, if anyone is using a GPS, the coordinates are as follows:

Latitude:33.7975969724
Longitude:-117.6557539869

it was only 0.7 miles from the turn off to the top of the waterfall overall took us 6 hours. 1.5 hours from the parked gate to the start of the waterfall trails and then 4.5 round-trip to go the 1.4 miles up to the waterfall and back. Total time from the gate is 6 hours round trip.

Poison Oaks everywhere some with 6-inch leaves. but we were well prepared, the Ivyblock lotion (available from Walgreens) really worked and I bought gloves (Home Depot, $5 for 5) for everyone (and they helped greatly when holding on to rocks and trees while climbing).

 

^ Pictures? Water flow?...

 

video now on Youtube

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7FuQQIBQgc0

 

Black star falls. Trying to avoid the slog up the creek bed to the falls. Must be a way to drop down from the fire road? I made it to the creek but I think I was above the falls and couldn't figure out how to get there

Thank you in advance for any assistance provided

 

there is no way to drop down from the fire road. I bushwhacked down into the ravine, and the creek bed drops off into a second falls upriver, surrounded by a crevasse of vertical rock. I've always wanted to go back with ropes and get there, but it is far easier just to hike up from the bottom.