Curtain Falls

Today, Cade and I went to Curtain Falls on the Middle Fork Feather River at Bald Rock Dome near Oroville, CA. We had initially planned to visit nearby Seven Falls, but Cade was leery of driving his car on any more dirt roads after Monday’s misadventure, so we were trying to see if we could find any indication online of the road conditions. In doing so, we found that the road was closed for repairs, so I suggested we do Curtain Falls instead, as I wanted to hit at least one swimming hole in the Feather River system (tangent: the pun-master in me finds it amusing that the Feather River is part of the Plumas National Forest). Bald Rock Dome also requires some gravel road driving, but the trailhead is a little more “official”, so we thought the road would probably be reasonably maintained. I actually recommended this place for Bald Rock Dome more than Curtain Falls per se. By this point in the trip, we were almost certainly not going to make it to Yosemite, so I thought Bald Rock Dome might round things out by providing a little Yosemite-esque scenery.

( Click here for the full trip report with pictures and videos. )

In summary, I was kind of underwhelmed by Curtain Falls and Bald Rock Canyon. They were sort of like a less interesting version of Tallulah Gorge in Georgia (albeit twice as deep and with prettier water). The swimming hole itself was okay, but getting there (or getting back, rather) was kind of annoying and more trouble than it was worth, in my opinion. Granted, a lot of swimming holes can be annoying to get to, but in many cases, the payoff is worth the effort, and having to boulder-scramble and swim to get there just adds to the adventure. I thought Curtain Falls was right at “worth it” status while I was actually at the swimming hole, but the return hike left a bad taste in my mouth (or maybe that was all the flies I ate). It might have been more rewarding if the flow were low enough to allow for jumping and safe sliding, but that was not the case today. I thought this place would be pretty cool based on the pictures I had seen (in fact, I'm looking back through my own pictures and wondering how I was not impressed), as it has been my experience that many things look bigger and more impressive in person than in photos. However, Curtain Falls and Bald Rock Canyon are more of a “what you see is what you get” type of deal; I didn't experience more of a "wow factor" from seeing it in person than I did from seeing it in pictures. I might have been more impressed if this had been the first place we hit, but the North Fork American and the South Yuba Rivers are hard acts to follow. If I lived within driving distance, then I would probably give Curtain Falls another chance at lower flow, but it would not be high on my to-do list if I were only in California for a few days.