Abstracts: desert light and water

A Series of Nature Abstracts, macros of Reavis Creek below the falls

These four shots are of afternoon desert light playing on limpid water flowing over colorful rocks.

All are macro shots of the falls taken with a Canon 100mm f/2.8L lens.

From my solo expedition to this location in the remote eastern Superstition Wilderness of Arizona.

CLICK ME to learn more about my work and to purchase prints.

I chose portions of Reavis Creek stream bed carefully

The time of day was essential. This was late afternoon and before the sun disappeared behind the canyon walls.

Not all sections of the stream bed were suitable. I chose elements of strong compositions.

Variation between the shots is essential for holding the viewers attention.

Click Me to visit my previous post, “Canyoneering to Reavis Falls” for more of this story.

Copyright 2023 Michael Stephen Wills All Rights Reserved

Transcendent Beauty

Water and Shadows

 

The canyon below 110 foot Reavis Falls is a wild place of transcendent beauty.

With the afternoon in front of me, the trip back to camp was a slow pleasure. On the way in, I noted several stopping points to capture photographs. Here a natural rock sluice offers a foot tall waterfall, mirroring Reavis Falls, bracketed by white igneous stone.

This same stone offers a screen, the bright spring sun throwing the sparse leaves into sharp relief.

Click Me to visit my previous post, “Canyoneering to Reavis Falls” for more of this story.

Copyright 2023 Michael Stephen Wills All Rights Reserved

Nature Abstracts from Reavis Falls

Basalt and Water

A Series of Nature Abstracts, macros of Reavis Falls

These are six shots of Reavis Falls from my solo expedition to this location in the remote eastern Superstition Wilderness of Arizona.

All are macro shots of the falls taken with a Canon 100mm f/2.8L lens.

“Reavis Falls Abstract V”

I took these while perched on a pile of talus beneath the falls.

Click Me To learn more about my work and to purchase prints

Reavis Falls Abstract XIV

Reavis Falls are 114 feet high in a canyon hidden in the folds of mountain ridges in the remote eastern Superstition Wilderness of Arizona.

Reavis Falls Abstract VI

Reavis Creek falls from a sheer basalt cliff, remnants of a volcanic eruption, cool a million years ago, a little colder today by this running water.

Reavis Falls Abstract VIII

Reavis Falls Abstract XI

Reavis Falls Abstract XV

Click Me to visit my previous post, “Canyoneering to Reavis Falls” for more of this story.

Copyright 2023 Michael Stephen Wills All Rights Reserved

Canyoneering to Reavis Falls

No signposts in the wilderness

Reaching Reavis Falls, once you find the canyon mouth, is three-fourths of a mile of boulder hopping and bushwacking over and around landslides, deep pools and fallen trees.  Odds are you will be the only person in the canyon for weeks, if not months.  Expect to be surprised. In this chapter you will (finally) visit the falls themselves.

A Camp in the Canyon

Click me for the chapter about the environment around the mouth of Reavis Canyon below the falls.

The Last Mile

Here is an overview of the last third mile of Reavis Canyon.  You can see the wall of the falls nestled in the folds of ridges towards the top, just off center.

On the lower right is a large landslide and, below there, it is complete chaos.

The vegetation grows shoulder to shoulder with interleaved branches.  You will not get through there.  The solution is to find a way around, usually over and around house-sized boulders.

The image was captured from Google Earth


After almost two hours of picking my way, there was a flicker of light.  The fall waters were sparkling in the sunlight high above the cottonwood trees, in full Mach bloom, and the still leafless Arizona Sycamores.

This was my view of Reavis Falls from the canyon on a March day before the Arizona Sycamores have leaved. The falls are the tiny patch of white to the left of midline where the earth meets the sky. Jumbles of infallen boulders and thick growth of sycamores, oaks and fully leaved cottonwoods cloak the falls.

Another 30 minutes of canyoneering brought me to the foot of the falls.

At the Foot of Reavis Falls

Looking up at Reavis Falls from a 20 foot tall mound of talus.

These are boulders  washed down at flood time.

The rock wall is thick with microorganisms, fungi and mosses.

After clambering around the talus pile I found this angle….

An Arizona Sycamore, before the spring leafing, at the Foot of Reavis Falls

Talus at the Foot of Reavis Falls

The Reavis Falls talus is large boulders carried down Reavis Creek and washed over the falls at flood time as well as blocks fractured from the cliff face.  You can see the base of the Sycamore from the previous photograph.

The falls are formed where Reavis Creek flows over a solid mass of rock.  The talus is composed mostly of this red rock.  From the edge of this cliff to the base, where the falls hit the canyon floor, is all of 140 feet.  This is a far as you can proceed into the canyon without some serious climbing skills.

It is possible to climb around the canyon by climbing up the ridge from which I captured the Cedar Basin Hoodoos.  See my posts below for this location (you need to work it our for yourself).

This is NOT the last post of the series.  From here I will focus on the beauty of Reavis Falls and the canyon that holds them.

It was a four-day expedition so there are a few chapters covering the approach to the Falls:

Lime Mountain Morning

Two Bar Mountain View

Evening on Two Bar Mountain

Among the desert wildflowers

Superstition Wilderness Dawn

Dry Juniper Descent

Hoodoos on the Descent to Reavis Falls

Cedar Basin Hoodoos

Reavis Canyon Camp

Reavis Canyon Rivulets and Rocks

Copyright 2023 Michael Stephen Wills All Rights Reserved

Reavis Canyon Rivulets and Rocks

Canyon of Wonder and Beauty

Born from Eruption and Flood

The Superstition Wilderness was born from volcanic eruption and in some places (Peters Mesa) the earth still rumbles.

Here in Reavis Canyon it is the huge spring runoff that builds the environment, grinding and scouring the canyon. In my chapter The Mouth of Reavis Canyon is the story of this aspect of the canyon.

The history of this spot is written on these volcanic and igneous rocks and boulders, the uprooted tree roots and fresh water.

The tire must have washed down from Reavis Ranch.

A Canyon of Wonder and Beauty

In this chapter I present, in the header, the lovely dawn sky of that day, and a tiny corner of a rock jumble in Reavis Creek.   There is a large format version of the sky in my previous post, “The Mouth of Reavis Canyon.”

Rivulets and Rocks

Copyright 2023 Michael Stephen Wills All Rights Reserved

The Mouth of Reavis Canyon

Canyon Hazards and Beauty

In this chapter we enter the Mouth of Reavis Canyon below Reavis Falls and examine the beauty and danger of this remote canyon.

See Reavis Canyon Camp for more of my expedition to Reavis Falls.

Dawn on the day I entered Reavis Canyon

Dawn light above the outline of the prominent cliff above Reavis Canyon and Falls the morning of my last day in the canyon.

You might recognize the outline of this cliff from the chapter  Two Bar Mountain View or Evening on Two Bar Mountain.

Here is the same view, in daylight. As I hiked toward the canyon mouth below Reavis Falls, looking up I saw this prominant cliff against the sky.

Here is the path I took toward the falls.  The campsite is to the lower right, the falls are toward the center and left.  My approach to the camp is on the right, moving toward the top.  For another view of this location see Reavis Canyon Camp.

The mouth of Reavis Canyon below the falls is choked with vegetation and infallen rocks and boulders.  The far slopes are thick with the poles of young saguaros. There are hoodoos, as well.  In the photograph, below, one hoodoo is catching morning light.  See the chapters Hoodoos on the Descent to Reavis Falls and Cedar Basin Hoodoos for more views of the hoodoos around Reavis Falls.

Hoodoos visible from the mouth of Reavis Canyon below the falls. Look toward the far slope.

Flood damage in Reavis Canyon below the falls. Note the scouring at the base of these trees and the broken limbs. This is NOT a place to be in spring thaw.

Massive spring flooding scours the canyon floor.

Flood damage in Reavis Canyon below the falls.

There is beauty to be found, as well. Freshly fallen rough rocks contrast with water smoothed boulders and the water surface.

Copyright 2023 Michael Stephen Wills All Rights Reserved

First Day

Spring Equinox

Thank You for exploring with me the South Rim trail of Taughannock Falls State Park on this first day of Spring 2023.

Photographs with video from this walk, with nature sounds and music in 4K HD
Click photograph for a larger view. To do this from WordPress Reader, you need to first click the title of this post to open a new page.

Click me for another Taughannock post, “Cuteness Break.”

19th Century Enfield Falls

A Bit of History

Enfield Falls, like many other towns, grew around its grist and sawmills. Farmers coming to this mill about the middle of the 19th century could do errands while waiting for their grain to be ground. In Enfield Falls at that time, there were two sawmills, a shingle mill, cooperage, tannery, carding factory, store and hotel. By the late 19th century there was also a post office.”

As farmers turned asway from growing wheat, Enfield Falls evolved from a busy milling center to a place appreciated for scenery and a quality hotel. Robert and Henrietta Wickham build and ran the hotel for many years during the middle of the 19th century. The hotel hosted popular dances in its ballroom. Guests could also dine and rest at the hotel.”

This placard from the Mill Museum at Treman Park is the source of much of today’s information. I used italics and quotes to attribute this source.

The sign in the heading of this post “hung near the hotel at least as early as 1883. In that year, D. Morris Kurtz mentioned it in his “Ithaca and Its Resources”: “At the foot of the hill is the Enfield Falls Hotel, but you look around in vain for the falls or even any sign of them. Upon the side of the stable into which our horses are driven is nailed a small board, on which is painted ‘Admission to the Falls, 10 cents.’ In reply to our inquiry the bright little urchin that takes charge of the team says, ‘Down there they are,’ pointing to the rocky wall which apparently forms the eastern and an unsurmountable boundary to the valley. And to ‘down there’ we proceed……

Treman Gorge Trail from the Old Mill enters a narrow gallery looking here southeast along Enfield Creek, passing over a stone footbridge. This was the control point in the 19th century for collecting the ten cent admission fee. Here are some photographs of the entrance as it exists today. The retaining wall, footpath and stone bridge were constructed in the 1930’s by the Civilian Conservation Corps. The site was far rougher for those earlier visitors.

Photograph captured on a midsummer morning. Robert H. Treman State Park, Ithaca, Tompkins County, New York

Copyright 2023 All Rights Reserved Michael Stephen Wills

Devil’s Kitchen

A small difference

Can you see the small difference between yesterday and today’s take on Devil’s Kitchen? Is the change and improvement, degradation or no difference? User Response Requested: respond in comments.

Aptly named Devil’s Kitchen is where Enfield Creek passes over these 20 foot falls before the Lucifer Falls 115 foot rock face cascade. Captured on a Memorial Day morning. Robert H. Treman State Park, Ithaca, Tompkins County, New York.

Here they are side by side.

It is 9:00am on a Memorial Daty morning Robert H. Treman Park, Ithaca, Tompkins County, Ithaca, New York,

Copyright 2023 All Rights Reserved Michael Stephen Wills

Devil’s Kitchen I

Near Lucifer Falls

Aptly named Devil’s Kitchen is where Enfield Creek passes over these 20 foot falls before the Lucifer Falls 115 foot rock face cascade. We are occasionally appalled by families and adventure seekers climbing over these falls, wading in the water downstream and other insanities happening next to a waterfall so dangerous it is named after the Prince of Darkness and this very location “his” kitchen.

I am not one to talk, though. One winter on this very spot when the Gorge Trail was closed for winter, black ice brought me down almost into the water. All for a winter scene (photograph) of this marvel. Thankfully, I am wiser for the experience.

It is 9:00 am on a Memorial Daty morning Robert H. Treman Park, Ithaca, Tompkins County, Ithaca, New York,

Copyright 2023 All Rights Reserved Michael Stephen Wills