Lower Jumps
Location Description
277 photos
-
Check out this hot rod I found by the side of the river!
-
Sweet! The steering wheel is even still there. Check...
-
Straight 8! They don't make engines like that anymore.
-
The waterfall right above the first rappel.
-
Andy and Joel inspecting the first drop into the gorge...
-
Tossing the rope.
-
Relaxing in the river while waiting for others to rappel down.
-
Mike on rappel.
-
Mike on rappel again.
-
Mike on rappel, #3.
-
Michael, swimming for shore.
-
Mike, with Joel in the background.
-
Andy on rappel with Joel proving a fireman's belay.
-
Looking for the second rappel. From left to right:...
-
Joel, Andy, and Mike, looking where to set up a body...
-
Andy inspecting the drop.
-
Joel getting ready to rappel off Andy and Mike's body weight.
-
Joel, on rappel.
-
A frog! These little guys were everywhere. There...
-
Top of the first jump. Looks exciting! At the bottom:...
-
Mike, on impact.
-
Setting up the next body belay. Mike providing the...
-
Andy on rappel.
-
Andy on rappel.
-
Mike, on impact. I need to get better at timing these...
-
Joel, on a water slide.
-
Floating down the river. Joel looks on as Andy...
-
Joel, Mike, Andy carefully working across a steep...
-
From foreground to background Joel, Mike and then Andy...
-
Another water slide! Mike looks on as Andy takes the plunge.
-
Joel, about to slide into the river.
-
Mike, caught in mid air as he slides off a short...
-
Andy, on a water slide "Australian style".
-
Joel at the bottom of a water slide.
-
Mike on a larger waterslide.
-
Joel, clearly having a good day.
-
Mike, trying out yet another water slide.
-
Andy, at the top of a rappel where Mike and Joel decided...
-
Andy, about to toss the rope/
-
Andy on rappel.
-
Waterfall next to our rappel.
-
Mike doing his mid-air impression of a fly on an...
-
Joel, doing oblique stretches (or maybe dancing to...
-
A view down river from the top of the 150 ft rappel. ...
-
The 150 ft rappel waterfall.
-
Andy on rappel of the 150 ft waterfall.
-
Andy on rappel #2.
-
Andy on rappel yet again. It is interesting to note...
-
My rappel device. Lying on a rock while the others...
-
Andy swimming for shore.
-
Mr. Radin.
-
Mike on rappel of the 150 ft waterfall.
-
Joel coming down the 150 ft waterfall.
-
Joel got sick of rappelling part way and decided to...
-
Andy, doggy-paddling down river.
-
Mike and Joel paddling down river with bags (bottom of...
-
Looking over the edge of a much smaller waterfall.
-
Joel and Mike, inspecting the waterfall for jumpability.
-
Mike, swimming.
-
Camp for the night. First order of business: get those...
-
A frog I found hanging out by the river. This guy...
-
Frog again, a little closer. About as close as I...
-
A little pot hole, with my reflection.
-
Mike, relaxing in camp after a hard day.
-
Andy, relaxing in camp.
-
Mike, who brought camp food so old that not only did it...
-
Making a fire in a pot hole.
-
Mike, Joel and Andy staring into the fire.
-
The fire eventually got pretty out of control, and...
-
Frog still here in the morning. Did he move?
-
Packing up camp. What better thing to do than jump into...
-
Andy and Mike, Sunday morning.
-
Breakfast in bed for Joel.
-
Andy, taking a morning dip in the pool.
-
Joel, Mike and Andy, ready for action.
-
Doggy paddling down river. Andy, Joel, and John's...
-
Joel and Mike enjoying a brisk morning swim.
-
View up river to our campsite.
-
Paddling down river. Annoying water droplet on lens at left.
-
Morning light, still hundreds of feet up.
-
Some tip-toeing around a rather narrow and fast-moving...
-
The top of a 100 ft waterfall.
-
From front to rear, Mike, Joel, Andy, inspecting the...
-
If you look very carefully, you'll see Mike 100 ft down...
-
Joel, on the 100 ft rappel, hanging his bag from his...
-
Joel swimming for shore, to begin the second part of the rappel.
-
Getting out of the water on slippery water-polished rock...
-
A picture of the 100 ft falls, captured from a unique...
-
Joel, having fun rappelling through a high-flow waterfall.
-
Joel's somewhere inside there. If you look really hard...
-
Joel having fun in the waterfall.
-
Joel, dropping into the second section of the waterfall
-
Joel, camera and all, rappelling through the waterfall.
-
Joel, feeling a whole river wash over him as he...
-
Victory!
-
Joel, floating down river, using his bag as a flotation aid.
-
Next up was an annoying section of down-climbing around...
-
Joel, passing under a large boulder in the river.
-
Contemplating a way around the cascade.
-
Frog soup! (A pool in a pot hole cut off from flow of...
-
Joel floating down river.
-
Enjoying a wider, gentler section of the canyon. Mike,...
-
Joel and Mike (rear) swimming down river, joel pushing...
-
Time for elevensies! Somehow we forgot second breakfasts today.
-
Mike (top left) doing one of his patented "power slides"...
-
Mike, mid power slide. Joel looks on.
-
So good, Mike is climbing back up to do it over.
-
Joel, below a rather scenic little cascade.
-
Weird looking rock on right. I wonder how that happened.
-
Joel, floating down the river.
-
Testing out underwater ability of camera. Joel, swimming.
-
Blackberry bushes! Guess this will have to suffice for...
-
Eating blackberries by the fist full. Wet suits make...
-
Andy on a water slide.
-
Mike, squeezing through a tight passage in a large boulder field.
-
Joel coming through an opening between two massive...
-
Andy, having worked his way through two large boulders.
-
I had a copy of our beta (trip information) in a zip...
-
Andy on a short rappel into a washing-machine like pool.
-
Joel on rappel as Andy (below) gives a fireman's belay.
-
Joel found a piece of wood at the bottom of the river...
-
Following the river under a massive boulder.
-
Mike doggy paddling and Andy behind him about to get...
-
Joel jumping off a rock, camera around neck. I am...
-
Andy, attempting to get as low as possible before...
-
Joel helping Andy out of a particularly violent pot hole...
-
Trying to find a way around this particularly...
-
Mike, jumping into the river. I always get these shots too late.
-
Mike on a waterslide.
-
The view to the west. Amazing scenery for only being...
-
Best water slide of the day. 15 foot drop down the...
-
Mike, on his way down the water slide of fun.
-
The 250 foot cascade we avoided by taking a use trail...
-
The 250 foot waterfall.
-
The use trail included the use of a 30 foot hand line to...
-
Andy, working his way under a boulder that smelled of guano.
-
Mike, squeezing under the guano boulder.
-
The last part of this hike became fairly arduous, with...
-
Almost there! (The powerhouse comes into view.)
-
Almost there! The powerhouse comes into view. (Mike,...
-
Geronimo! A fitting end to our trip. Joel, after...
-
Time to get out of the river before getting sucked into...
-
One last obstacle remains: sneaking through the power...
-
Nothing like some good old fashioned trespassing to...
-
This was a rather surreal end to our weekend wilderness...
-
Interesting. Go PG&E.
-
Packing Andy's truck for the drive home.
-
On Saturday afternoon, Colin and I packed into his VW...
-
We met Joel at the lower trailhead next to the Balch...
-
In the morning, we took a quick side trip to visually...
-
A map displaying the North Fork of the King's as well as...
-
Colin and Joel inspect the interpretive panels at Black...
-
We knew it was going to be a long day (11 hours was what...
-
PG&E's liability signs which are new this year. Releases...
-
Joel inspects our favorite junked car at the river's...
-
No one wanted to man up for the first 50 foot jump into...
-
I put my new camera on timer mode, and captured this...
-
Very clear, clean looking water.
-
Joel and Colin pack the rope. Sadly, we noticed a core...
-
Hauling out of the first pool and surveying the vertical...
-
This canyon starts out with a bang. Three twenty foot...
-
This technique is referred to as creating a "meat...
-
Joel rappels down carefully and checks the water depth.
-
Colin and John prepare for the first jump, which...
-
John climbs to the ledge first.
-
Colin climbs to the ledge next. We jumped from a little...
-
Colin, looking up at one of the jumps. It's still early...
-
Joel, surveying the territory ahead.
-
Colin on one of the first three twenty foot jumps.
-
Swimming to the next waterfall.
-
After the first three jumps and a bit of boulder...
-
Joel decides to go first.
-
Colin, hip-sliding on a water slide.
-
Finally the sun came out which was nice for warmth but...
-
Colin, playing on a water slide.
-
Colin and Joel on a water slide.
-
Colin on a water slide.
-
Colin and Joel.
-
Joel got into this funny habit of landing in the seated...
-
Colin rappels down a 30-foot jump.
-
A frog, near the top of a 150 foot waterfall. How did he...
-
John dries off and rests at the bottom of the 150 foot waterfall.
-
Colin, working his way down the 150 foot waterfall.
-
Colin, rappelling down the 150 foot waterfall. It was...
-
It's funny as I look through these photos in time-order...
-
Joel tosses his bag in the water.
-
Joel straddling between two potholes.
-
Colin sliding into a pool. See that triangle shaped rock...
-
Colin tossing in his pack ahead of his body.
-
This next part of the canyon was very playful, with...
-
Hauling out of the water to circumvent an 80 foot...
-
John and Joel pack the rope after using it as a hand line.
-
Colin, at the top of the Big Kahuna jump / rappel.
-
Walking up the ramp the Big Kahuna rappel.
-
Joel on the Big Kahuna Rappel.
-
This drop is about 80 feet, and has been jumped at least...
-
As I was relating this story to Colin as we were...
-
Joel waits below while we use a rope to get down the Big...
-
John sets up rigging to rappel the Big Kahuna.
-
So apparently the day before a group had let one of...
-
John rappelling the Big Kahuna.
-
Should probably touch these up in Lightroom when I get...
-
Packing the rope at the bottom of the Big Kahuna and...
-
Colin gets ready to jump the twenty footer below the Big...
-
Colin, leaping twenty feet into the next pool. We used a...
-
Colin, floating downstream.
-
Joel, getting ready to jump a 35-40 foot jump. It's...
-
There is an optional fifty foot jump from the highest...
-
Stopping for lunch on the rock from which the last photo...
-
Warming up in the sun and eating food. Colin and I had...
-
Trying to swim into the rainbow room, but failing,...
-
As close as we got to this powerful and beautiful waterfall.
-
Joel, this is the photo you need to send into Chaco Flip...
-
Colin, with Patterson Gorge in the background.
-
Leaving the gorge after lunch.
-
After the gorge, the canyon becomes more gentle and...
-
Colin floats downstream.
-
Why walk when the water will carry you?
-
Beautiful granite streaked with colorful intrusions.
-
I think that is Patterson Mountain in the distance but I...
-
Fun dry slide.
-
The lazy way to get down river. Prop yourself up on your...
-
Joel saves a non-aquatic critter from a watery grave.
-
Wild blackberry patches. We stopped and ate a bunch of...
-
Colin enjoys a wild blackberry. They really were about this good.
-
Climbing ashore to forage for berries.
-
Searching for the choicest fruit.
-
Handing some berries down to Joel and Colin in the water.
-
Joel enjoying some blackberries.
-
Sad! Many of these berries had just rotted on the vine....
-
Collecting more fruit and handing it to Joel.
-
Colin was apparently enamored of what he called what...
-
Foraging for blackberries.
-
How cool is this! A bug that either died or molted and...
-
Colin, floating downstream.
-
Joel scans the shore for more berries.
-
Colin, having fun on a small waterfall.
-
Colin down-climbs some boulders to regain the water...
-
Joel braces for the inevitable splash.
-
Colin putting on his game face.
-
Joel, about to slide into a pile of rocks, while we...
-
Pretty waterfall.
-
Joel finds that 4th class climbing is hard in flip flops.
-
Joel squeezing those toes to keep his shoes (flip flops) on.
-
Colin with Patterson Mountain (I think) in the background.
-
Colin sliding into a pool.
-
Joel doing the same.
-
Swimming across a pothole to the next waterfall.
-
Colin, making some delicate steps in tennis shoes.
-
Underwater pink river grasses that I thought were quite pretty.
-
Colin wearing his Jesus boots.
-
Joel on a water slide.
-
My absolute favorite part of Lower Jumps. A 30 foot...
-
Colin sliding down the Super Happy Fun Slide.
-
Yippee!
-
Woo hoo!
-
A little blurry, but you get the idea. Very fun!
-
Swimming back to shore for another round.
-
Joel sets up for a go.
-
He's a little far to our right, and realizes it. He...
-
And goes feet over head off the end!
-
Climbing back around for more.
-
Here goes Colin.
-
Colin goes down the slide again.
-
One last time...
-
Wish this had been less blurry. I wonder how my old...
-
Getting down the last major obstacle.
-
Power slide!
-
At this point we had to skirt a 250 foot waterfall by...
-
The trail was still rather steep and required use of a...
-
Colin climbs through a cave-like tunnel under a giant...
-
Sadly this would be the last picture I took on this...
-
Picking some blackberries on our hike around the Balch...
-
Tarantula hanging out by the side of the road, spotted...
-
Setting off to search for the lost Canon camera in a...
-
Fifteen minutes later, success. Owed in large part to...
-
Slightly better picture without dive mask on.