Humbug Trail: hiking to a granite-slot waterfall

Humbug Falls: water coming down a granite slot, falling and shooting through carved out channels

The Humbug Trail in California's Malakoff Diggins State Historic Park connects “The Diggins” with the South Yuba Trail. Also named Humbug Creek Trail, this 2.7-mile-long single-track trail between the North Bloomfield Road and the South Yuba River roughly follows a series of shafts. These are vertical openings once used to construct a bedrock tunnel—the North Bloomfield Tunnel—to drain water and mining debris. The trailhead is near the West Point Overlook south of Diggins Lake. It is accessible by driving 1.5 miles south-southwest Trailhead from the Visitor Center and Museum in North Bloomfield, once named Humbug.

Humbug Creek

The one-way distance from the North Bloomfield Road trailhead to the waterfall is 1.25 miles—less than the half-way distance to the Yuba River. The fairly level trail, which follows the steep ravine cut out by Humbug Creek, is shaded and variously lined by poison oak. Humbug Falls are a chain of waterfalls. The most interesting sections, in my opinion, are those where the water is not falling, but shooting through channels carved out off the granite bed. 

Hikers on Humbug Trail

Also interesting to see at Malakoff Diggins:

• St. Columncille's Church
• North_Bloomfield_schoolhouse

A trail map of Malakoff Diggins State Historic Park is available with the park brochure: https://docs.google.com/viewerng/viewer?url=http://malakoffdigginsstatepark.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/MalakoffSHPFinalWebLayout051517.pdf&hl=en_US.