Long Weekend Northern California Waterfall Introduction with Mom

This was a long weekend trip where I spontaneously decided to do a trip to visit waterfalls in the far north of California for the first time.

Given the driving distances, neither Julie nor I went waterfalling north of Sacramento.

So at least this was my opportunity to do it, but Julie would have to wait given her health issues.

So my mother tagged along on this trip as she was always keen to go on these excursions that were way out of the norm for her.

This was what would turn out to be the first of three trips that I went on with Mom in a span of two months. And even though we were limited on time, we still managed to pack in quite a bit of stuff.

Here are some highlights and logistics from the trip…

Trip Map

Trip Highlights

Castle Rock – while we were hunting for waterfalls en route to the far north of the state, this eccentric formation that seemed alien-like with its vein-like walls was a highlight. It also had a waterfall as well as being pretty close to Silicon Valley.

Grouse Falls – we actually had to race an incoming snow storm when we made our visit to one of the state’s tallest waterfalls. It was too bad because we also could have visited a grove of Sequoia Trees in the area as well…

Rush Creek Falls – this bit of an adventure was memorable more for the trail it took to get to the falls than the waterfall itself. It was said to be wheelchair accessible though this former mining route made the hike feel more like we were back in the California Gold Rush days.

Feather Falls – this was one of California’s best waterfalls not within Yosemite National Park, and it took us a while before we finally made it out to the Oroville area just to even do the long half-day hike to finally see this giant.

Sonoma and the Sonoma Creek Falls – Mom and I made a bit of a detour towards Sonoma in order to experience the surprising waterfall then checking out a little bit of the food and wine scene for lunch. It was the perfect kind of pick-me-up for the long drive home.

Trip Advice

Here’s a few things we learned about this trip.

Avoiding Memorial Day Weekend: We did our trip a week before the busy Memorial Day Weekend, which was probably a wise decision. In fact, we managed to avoid crowds on just about every one of our excursions during this weekend. That also meant that we didn’t contend too much with traffic nor crowdedness on the trails. So despite the ambitious distance covered along with the activities we jammed in here, we still felt pretty chilled out and relaxed, and we definitely had good quality mother and son time.

Dividing Driving Duties: Speaking of relaxing times, due to the long driving distances of getting all the way up north towards Sacramento from Los Angeles, Mom and I actually split up the driving duties. That helped to stave off road fatigue.

Variable Weather: While I generally think of Spring as THE season to go waterfalling in California, this season does bring about variable weather. Case in point, we had to contend with a couple of days of rain and even a snow storm when we pursued a waterfall on the way to Truckee.

Travel Itinerary

Day 1: Drive from Los Angeles to Morgan Hill

Overnight: Holiday Inn Express and Suites (Morgan Hill, California, USA)

Since it was just Mom and I, we had no problems getting up very early and beating the Los Angeles rush hour traffic as we made a pre-dawn drive out to Northern California. The early start afforded us time to visit the Uvas Canyon Waterfalls (including Triple Falls before driving even closer to San Jose to visit Castle Rock and the Castle Rock Falls.

Day 2: Drive from Morgan Hill to Oroville

Overnight: Sunset Inn Lake Oroville (Oroville, California, USA)

This was another driving day, but we made it a point to visit waterfalls along the way, which included Grouse Falls and Rush Creek Falls with a brief visit to Grass Valley. We missed seeing the northernmost Sequoia Trees in the state due to a snow storm though.

Day 3: Feather Falls

Overnight: Sunset Inn Lake Oroville (Oroville, California, USA)

This was a day dedicated to the long-anticipated hike to Feather Falls. Even though the area had seen some sketchy weather prior to our arrival, it turned out to be a pretty comfortable half-day of hiking before we took it easy back at Oroville when all was said and done.

Day 4: Drive from Oroville to Los Angeles with a detour to the Northern Bay Area

On this final day of the trip, we got greedy by visiting a couple of more waterfalls (i.e. Dawn Falls and Sonoma Creek Falls) before eating lunch in Sonoma. Then, we took turns driving the rest of the way home.

Best Places We’ve Stayed At

On this trip, there really wasn’t an accommodation that stood out as we mostly stayed in places for exclusively logistical and price reasons.

What to Bring

In addition to the equipment that we bring on all of our trips, there wasn’t anything in addition that we needed for this trip.