It was a bit of a trek to get to Diamond Falls, especially in a steady rain. With temps in the thirties, it made for a chilly hike as well! Not that I didn’t try to get out of having to hike a little over a mile each way mind you. The directions I followed mentioned being able to drive back close to the falls, so that is what I attempted first. I took the gravel road out of the Salt Creek Falls parking area and wound my way back for about three miles before coming to a junction with railroad tracks. There was some equipment parked there and it looked like they had recently been digging along the roadway. With all the rain that had fallen the last couple of days, it was a muddy mess. I got out and surveyed the situation and decided it wasn’t exactly a place from where I would want to be calling a tow truck. So much for saving any time there…

After hiking nearly an hour, I was about ready to give up on finding the falls until I ran across a sign pointing towards Lower Diamond Creek Falls. Well, I was looking for “Diamond Creek Falls” not “Lower Diamond Creek Falls”, but what the heck I headed down the path anyway. As I rounded the corner I could hear the thunder of the falls and crossed a bridge to get close to the base. I had read that there wasn’t much room to work here and that was definitely the truth. There were trees to the right which made getting a shot from that side of the creek impossible. On the other side was a huge boulder the size of a small house taking up the majority of the bank still lined with snow. I could see a spot that looked like it should be in line for a good composition and donned my waders to move into position. The water was downright frigid as I waded through a couple of pools that came close to the top of my thighs. I scrambled across a couple of logs and squeezed myself along the edge of the boulder. I had to take my camera bag off and push it along a rock shelf in order to get through a deep hole and then I was able to pull myself up on a mossy rock. It is hard to tell from the picture, but these falls are around a hundred feet high. The vantage point was not only limited in the amount of space I had to stand, but also was so close that I was limited to pretty much my widest lens.

I spent a whole ten minutes shooting there. I struggled to maneuver my tripod enough to get two compositions and then spent a good amount of time keeping the rain cleared off my lens. To make matters worse, while moving my tripod, I lost a bubble level and a cable release to the fast running current. It was like I was in the ring against a prize fighter. I was getting beat up! I got my shots and packed up my gear and waded back to safety. Who says this photography thing is easy?

Click on the image to view a larger version in the galleries.