Tag Archives: waterfall

Granite Falls in Full Flow

In a previous post, I showed the waterfalls at Granite Falls, north of us.  At that time, the weather had been quite calm, and the falls were quite subdued.  At that time, I had suggested I would go back later in the winter.  We had a prolonged period of rain in the area, some of which was very heavy.  Knowing this had come through, I figured a return trip was in order to see just how much the falls would be transformed.  This was not a wasted effort!

Even as I got out of the car in the parking area up on the main road, I could hear the falls.  The flow through them was unrecognizable from my previous time there.  The water was the full width of the falls and was crashing across everything in its path.  The force of the water was quite intimidating and, while I was quite safe where I was on the walkways, I shuddered to think what would happen to anyone getting caught up in this torrent.

Video was clearly the thing to experiment with on this visit.  Sure, I was getting lots of shots.  I was seeing whether longer shutter speeds would give a good impression of the motion or whether a slightly shorter exposure might actually be more effective.  However, video is the tool that really allows someone to appreciate the intensity of the flow and the noise.  Consequently, I edited together the footage below to give you an idea of what it was like.

As I looked upriver, I saw vehicles crossing the river and realized that the road I had come in on, continued across the river on a bridge.  I had not noticed this on the previous visit so, once I had made my way back up to the road, I decided to check the bridge out.  This is a country road so I wondered if there would be a safe way to walk across.  Fortunately, there was a protected sidewalk on both sides of the bridge.  It was quite a drop down to the river but the mist over the water and between the trees provided a lovely shot, so I was glad to have diverted that way even if I was a little uncomfortable that high up!

Back to Whatcom Falls After Rain

We visited Whatcom Falls a while back and, at the time, the water levels had been quite low.  I had been thinking about heading back when the water would be flowing more but hadn’t got around to it.  Then, Nancy and I were up in Bellingham for something else and, as we headed home, I make a quick detour to stop off at the falls.  They are so close to the parking lot, you can really make a ten-minute stop if you want.

The water was definitely flowing strongly.  The falls were flowing hard, and the water was also running through the spillway on the other side of the footbridge.  I did go around the top of the falls to see the river flowing in and also take a look at the flow as it headed over the falls.  It was very energetic, and I am glad to have taken the side trip. Here is some video of the falls.

Granite Falls

I’m not sure what it was that led to this but I happened to see Granite Falls on Google Maps one day.  It is a small town about 45 minutes north of us which I will have seen the sign to on many occasions as I go up Route 9 but which I had never thought of previously.  Needless to say, there are waterfalls in Granite Falls.  I looked at some of the pictures on Google Maps and decided to check it out some time.  We headed up one weekend to have a look.

Since it was just the beginning of Fall, there hadn’t been much rain recently.  Consequently, the falls were not flowing very heavily.  However, looking at the shaping of the rocks around the water, it was clear that the level can be much higher and the force of the water, substantial.  The falls were in stages and, while there is a fish ladder alongside, some salmon were actually trying to leap up sections of the falls.  They were infrequent so I never managed to catch one airborne with the camera.

We walked along the trails that runs the length of the falls.  The cliffs on the other side are very steep and you are deep in a valley.  It was difficult to really capture the scale of the place.  However, I did resolve to wait for the weather to get worse and to have more run off from the mountains before making a return trip to see the falls in a more aggressive mood.

Whatcom Falls Park In Spring

A previous trip to Bellingham had included a walk in Whatcom Falls Park.  At that time, I was quite interested in the shape of the falls and how the water had eroded the rock but there was a low flow of water that day.  I wanted to go back at some point and see the falls with more water flowing over them.  We headed up to have a stroll around the park and to see the falls again recently.

The water was certainly flowing more strongly.  Plenty of people were out to see the falls in flow.  I tried out the view from several different locations although avoided getting too adventurous.  I didn’t fancy getting wet – or worse.  I imagine that things could be even more powerful if the timing was just right after some stormy weather but it was still nice to see the water flowing so strongly.

Back to Cascade Falls

On our previous trip to Orcas, we took in Cascades Falls as part of a hike.  We repeated the hike this time but, since we started a little earlier in the day and the days were longer, we didn’t have quite the same pressure to make sure we got back before things got dark.  Consequently, when we got to Cascade Falls, I was able to spend a bit more time taking the diversion down to the river to see the falls from lower angles and get some images and video that I hadn’t had a go at on the previous visit.  While everything was a lot warmer than last time, there had been a fair bit of rain recently which meant the falls still had a good flow coming over them.  As is the way with waterfalls, they look more impressive when you are at the bottom than when you are above them.

Cascade Falls

Back to our trip to Orcas Island and our hike around Cascades Lake included a diversion to Cascade Falls.  (See a naming theme here?). I had seen something about these falls online which had led me to think that they weren’t terribly large.  I was, therefore, rather surprised to find out that this was a decent drop.  We came in from the top of the falls so were looking down on them from above.  The trail continues along the river and so we got to take a look at them from lower down as we continued on.  They was a side trail that would take you right down to the water but we had a fair bit of walking to do before it got too dark so I avoided the diversion this time.

Rustic Falls

Our walk in Moran State Park included a diversion up the hills to see some falls.  There were two that I was expecting to see.  The first of these was Rustic Falls.  It was not supposed to be a big waterfall and that was the case.  However, it was quite pretty.  I wandered down to the water’s edge to try and get some shots of it.  I was using the M6 which comes with a tilting screen.  That really makes like so much easier when trying to get a shot very low to the ground.  No need to lie on the earth or to fit a tilting eye piece.  Just tilt the screen up, put the camera as low as you want, and get the shot.  I wish my higher end cameras had the same capability!

Video of Snoqualmie Falls in Flood

More from my video editing catch up today.  I posted about the Snoqualmie Falls being in flood earlier this year after extensive rain.  I also shot some video that day.  It gives a better idea of how the spray from the falls gets driven up the hillside near the viewing area whereupon is dumps down on the visitors.  Here is the edited highlights.

 

Snoqualmie Falls in Full Flow

November and December in Washington were pretty dry.  For a state known for damp winters, we were rather lacking in rain.  January and February decided to make up for that and we had days of rain and not just showers but really heavy rainfall.  Local rivers are in flood all over the region.  Snoqualmie Falls were on TV as the flow over the falls was raging.  We have seen a variety of flow levels in our different visits based on river levels and the power generation requirements.  This looked more than we had seen before and a visit seemed worthwhile.

We weren’t the only ones with this idea.  Plenty of people were there and, talking to others after our visit, they all seemed to have visited too.  The full width of the falls was covered and the roar of the crashing water was impressive.  What was also dramatic was the impact on the viewing areas.  The spray from the falls was being driven up the side of the rocks by the wind and so, while the surrounding area was dry, in the immediate vicinity of the falls, it was raining pretty heavily.  One guy I talked to had his camera stop working it got so wet.

This made getting photos quite tricky.  While the cameras I had were up to the task, keeping the front of the lens dry was a difficult task.  The sun angle also meant any water on the lens was more conspicuous than normal.  At first I tried to keep it clear but I soon gave up and just went with whatever I could get.  We then went to the river in order to walk up towards the bottom of the falls.  However, this had been closed off, presumably because of the river levels, so I couldn’t get the other shots I was hoping for.

Lewis Falls

We stopped off at the Lewis Falls on the way out of Yellowstone.  The angle of the falls from the road meant I had not even noticed them when we drove into the park but, coming back south, they were easily seen ahead and off to the right of the road.  Temperatures were not so low that the falls were frozen up and they looked very pretty.  Given the number of vehicles in the area, everyone was stopping to take a look too.