Rainbow Falls

It has turned suddenly very hot here in Southern California, so I thought I should dig up an image that feels cool and refreshing. Apologies to any of you still getting snowed on.

These falls are located inside an area known as the Devil's Postpile National Monument, just west of Mammoth Lakes & Mammoth Mountain ski area in the eastern sierras. There's only one dead-end road in and out this place and it usually doesn't open until mid-June, the road being impassable due to deep snow. 

"Rainbow Falls" gets it's name from the fact that at the right time of day when the sun is high, you can see a perfect rainbow in the mist created by the falls. We didn't have enough time to hang around and find out... this was actually shot early in the morning, while still mostly in shadow. I managed to avoid it pretty well, but there is considerable mist all around and the force of the water creates it's own wind, which of course sends lots of droplets towards the lens of your camera and ruins your shot; also if the light catches it wrong you get an ugly glare. It took me an hour of climbing around on these rocks and using my hat to shield the camera to get something useable.

You have to hike in about a mile from the parking at the very end of the road through a recently burned out section of forest (see the above shot, courtesy of my wife), arriving along the upper right edge of the gorge seen here, then climb down a short but steep section to reach the bottom. Maybe it's a little hard to judge the scale of the fall, but it's 100 ft. tall and the water really roars through with a lot of energy until later in the summer when it quiets down a bit.

"Rainbow Falls" - Eastern Sierra