Lover's Leap & Giant Gap

Placer County, California

I found out about this place while I was reading about the serpentine formations in the Sierra Nevadas. Giant Gap, on the North Fork of the American River, is at the lead edge of the Melones Fault, one of the ancient uplift faults that formed the Sierras. To it's East lie the serpentine formations, metamorphic rock that spewed through the cracks when these great plates slipped and overlapped. The area, called Green Valley, is the widest part of the North Fork Canyon. Giant Gap is the narrowest. Lover's Leap is a shelf of rock 2400 feet above the river. This part of river is very popular with rafters. It is designated Wild & Scenic, so there is no development -- no signs, no water, no outhouse, etc. To get there, I took the Alta Turnoff on I-80 about 10 miles East of Colfax, followed the frontage road along the highway and up onto the ridge. After turning onto Moody Ridge Road, there are a few small signs you will need to watch out for. I recommend inquiring locally for more specific directions. It's not more than 20 minutes off the freeway. Once you reach the end of the road, you'll need to look around for the somewhat obscure trail. It took us a while to find it. The road is gravel and dirt, but passable in a passenger car when it's not too muddy or covered with snow. The pictures below were taken in March, 2003.

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When we first arrived, we didn't immediately find the trail, but we found places to get some spectacular views. This is a view of Giant Gap, looking generally West, downstream. There are a lot of steep places here, besides the Leap. Be careful!

Green Valley was a hot spot in the Gold Rush, in spite of the difficulty in reaching it. The serpentine formations, with their blue-green color, are very obvious. We were a little North of Lover's Leap when this picture was taken.

The rafting guides mention this tree, but they don't seem to realize that it is at the top of the cliff. We found it, more or less by accident. Frankly, I think we were called to it. It is reputed to be the oldest Black Oak in the Sierras, around 350 - 400 years old. It's girth is the most impressive aspect -- Grandfather Oak is a gnarled, grizzly old guy, not particularly tall. While we were there, Brother Eagle dropped in for a visit -- that's what Larry is looking at. The eagle stopped at the top of a fir tree. Had it not been early Spring, before the oaks leafed out, we might not have seen him. He stayed long enough for us to pay our respects, then spread his wings and glided away. It was a truly magic moment.

We went back to the car and got our lunch, then started looking for a good place to eat. That's when we found the trail that led to the Leap, no more than a five-minute walk from where we parked. Lover's Leap is basically a shelf of rock maybe 15 feet wide, sticking out of the cliff 2400' above the river. This view is peeking around the left side of the shelf, which is inscribed with a lot of grafitti. The oldest date I saw was 1912, but I would wager that it once contained petroglyphs from a more ancient time and culture.

Looking East toward Green Valley again, with the lip of the shelf in the foreground, the snow-capped mountains on the left horizon are those along the West side of Lake Tahoe.

Looking down from Lover's Leap, it's a long way to the bottom.

Larry took a picture of Vicky on the ledge with Green Valley behind....

And Vicky took one of Larry with Giant Gap behind.

Here is a link to the topo map. It will open in a new window.

Disclaimers, denials, alibis...

I took these pictures using a disposable Kodak camera, had them developed to cd, edited them using an old demo version of Lview Pro, created the page in a demo version of Symantec Visual Page, and posted it to my web site using a simple FTP program I also got for free. You can do this, too. Why not? All contents of this page are © 2003 by Richard J. Gorman. You can send me a message here. Let me know if you found this useful.

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