Back again and just in time for summer’s end. There is about a week left till Fall officially starts- but luckily for you, the warm weather should carry over into late September and early October. Last week, I made the hot trek up to Feather Falls near Oroville. This is an epic waterfall within the Plumas National Forest and a must see by all accounts. Unfortunately, from the trail it looks like just a hike. When you reach the gorgeous waterfall outlook, you see that it drops deep into a valley which seems impossible to get to from your location. This hike will leave you thinking, where is the swimming hole?
Don’t stop at the waterfall overlook. If you follow the trail up along the mountain side, you will reach an emerald green oasis. This is a secret area, but really not too hard to find. Essentially, this is the creek that turns into feather falls and flows down into the feather river canyon. Generally, it gets really hot up here so the cool waters are quite refreshing after a 3.5-4.5 mile hike to the falls.
Not many opportunities for high jumping into water here, but plenty of rock hopping and sun bathing around the creek is available. I made my way up and down the river and found many little spots that are great for a quick break or a lunch stop. At 95 degrees mid day, this secret swimming hole could not be more relaxing. This place is almost like a mini Yosemite, but with way less people. Not a single soul in sight on a Wednesday afternoon.
I made my way back towards the waterfall and found a breath taking, yet scary overlook of the valley. It is quite easy to reach this place. Just follow the creek and hop over some rocks, but be careful. Definitely wouldn’t be too hard to plummet to your doom. As I said before, there seems to be no way to reach the bottom of the falls, unless you come up the valley from a completely different area. If you stick to the trail, you will be rewarded with some great views and with a little side trekking you will reach the very top of the falls.
There you have it. This concludes my 7 part summer series. People always ask me where to go in northern California and here it is! There is a weeks worth of adventures and swimming material right here on the blog. All of these places can be made into day trips from the bay area and none are difficult/advanced hikes. Hopefully we will be around to do another series in summer of 2017. I also hope you enjoyed these suggestions over the summer. Stay tuned though, more collective features to come…
BIGFOOT COLLECTIVE 