Boulder Falls

Author's Comments

Boulder Falls is a roadside waterfall, and that is both the appeal and the complication. You park along Highway 119, walk a few minutes up a steep little path, and there it is - seventy feet of water dropping through a narrow granite cleft. There is no earning it. Which means everyone is here, and on a weekend in June the small lot turns into a slow-motion negotiation of cars trying to find a space that does not exist. Come on a Tuesday. Come at sunrise, or close to it. Late May into June is when the snowmelt is honest and the falls actually roar, and the canyon walls are still cold enough in the early hours that you get that suspended mist hanging in the slot. Morning light here is indirect - the canyon is narrow and the sun does not reach the falls until later - and that is exactly what you want. Even, soft, long shadows on the granite. The kind of light that lets a long exposure breathe. Bring the tripod. This is the rare waterfall where silk water actually serves the image rather than flattening it, because the rock face behind the cascade is textured enough to hold its own against the smooth water. I shoot tighter here than my instinct tells me to. The wide frame includes too much guardrail and undergrowth and the path of other photographers' tripods. The detail frames - the upper drop alone, the place where the water hits the lower pool and breaks apart - those are the photographs worth carrying home.

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