I have photographed many hundreds of waterfalls since the age of 12 when I started this obsession with capturing light. Waterfalls are among my most photographed subjects, but there is one just south of Mount Shasta that is one of the most stunning, and perhaps my favorite. At 50 feet tall, and spread out over 150 feet, it is not its thunderousness that compels.
Its magic comes from its origins. We normally think of a waterfall as a stream or river cascading over a precipice, but that’s not what’s happening here. These falls come from springs bursting through the moss out of fissures in the basaltic (volcanic) walls under the moss. Because of these origins, the falls behave consistently throughout the year.
Unfortunately, the falls closed to the public shortly after I took these photos, so if you visit them you are trespassing. This is because access to this place is along the Union Pacific railroad tracks, which has several narrow spots where hikers have been seriously injured after being hit by trains they couldn’t outrace. So I won’t give the coordinates to this one. But I can let you enjoy the view.
