I am still composing a general overview of this area, but I’ve been down there twice in the last month and some really cool stuff happened so here goes.
My ace number one dirt-dog, Mr. Crash Fistfight, proposed an overnight adventure to Tar Creek’s lower falls and Condor Cliffs. I’ve been itching to see a condor this year and a late November bivy on the cliffs of lower Tar Creek appealed to my need (alpismo) to get outside and get dirty. I’ve been to The Swimming Hole and the surrounding environs more times than I can count but not once have I spent the night there. So I put together a striped down alpine ruck, opting for some heavier insulating layers ‘cause I knew it would be cold, threw together a sandwich and snacks, grabbed the camera and off we went.
It was nice and sunny and cool for the walk down to Condor Cliffs and we made great time arriving a couple hours before sunset. We picked a ledge on the cliff for the bivy, set our gear down and started gathering some firewood.
There were no condors about, but we hoped that the family who lives on these cliffs would return soon. Crash had a look around at the scattered perches looking for feathers…none found, while I investigated a possible route down off the cliff to the Sespe…no go. It seems that the only way off the cliff from the creek is a 150ft plus rappel to the bottom of the waterfall.The sun dropped behind Bear Heaven around 6pm and the temperature dropped with it. (Sure am glad I brought those extra layers). We took a few moments to organize our gear for the night and then sat down and ate while we watched the sun set.
About an hour later we got the fire going and sat around talking sour on current events, the Sespe condors and our failed attempt on the east face of Middle Palisade last spring. Around 9pm a little wind kicked up, bringing down the temperature further, but the fire kept us warm and toasty. I was in my sleeping bag and bivy sack by 10 and faded off to sleep sometime afterward.I was awoken by the nights chill once or twice, but all in all, the cold wasn’t too bad, like 6 out of 10 on the misery scale. I climbed out of my bag at around 7 am and tried to stomp out the cold from my bones and shake the sleep from my head. Eventually the sun returned to out little cliff and warmed the rock and my core. Crash was re-animated by the sun and slowly creaked in action while I got my breakfast ready and finished organizing my ruck. While Crash got himself together, we talked about our plan to stop at First Falls on the way out, hoping we can get us some photos of the big birds.
We climbed off the cliffs around 9am and started working our way up the gorge to the use-trail near First Falls.
We made a short pit-stop for pictures but saw no birds. 
Oh well. The rest of the hike out was uneventful as we made good time getting back to the truck. We were home in Ventura by noon, gone less that 24 hours.Part Two.
Exactly one week after Crash and I visited Tar Creek, my son Carlo, and I had a little one day adventure down there.
Tar Creek is a wild and remote place. It requires more than fitness to get in and out of there and because of this, I am reluctant to take most folks down to this place. Carlo has hiked down to the Swimming Hole a couple of times and we’ve had a lot of fun swimming and climbing there, but he’s never been further down the creek. Carlo has been putting down some miles on the trail with me lately so I figured he was up for something a little tougher. He was enticed by stories of monster waterfalls, abundant fossils and Sespe condors and wanted to see it all for himself.
We burned up the trail from the truck down to the creek and were standing at the Swimming Hole proper within an hour, excellent time.
The We didn’t stay long as our goal was the upper falls and we wanted to keep to momentum going. 
Below the Swimming Hole, the going gets tough I expected Carlo to have a hard time through there…wrong! 
The kid handled the difficulties of the boulder choke just above the falls without a problem and did pretty good with the route finding. At any rate, we were atop the falls in less than 90 minutes from the trailhead! That’s approaching alpinist speeds! 
Well done boy. 
From the top of the falls, we worked the ledges along its northern wall to a use trail just below the falls and worked our way back over more ledges to the pool that sits at the bottom of the falls. Tar Creeks upper falls pour over the sandstone and drop about 60 feet onto a ledge and then spills down a slide another 20 feet into deep pool. One can walk behind the falls on the ledge and access the southern wall of the gorge. This would be our picnic spot.
It was much too cold for a swim but we played around in the waterfall a little anyway, very pleasant.
Carlo took it upon himself to explore the area around the falls and its surrounding pools and I could see him working things out in his head about future excursions to the area, like, “I bet that waterslide still goes in the summertime” or “This would be a good jumping ledge for that pool down there”, and so on. After a while we sat down on the main ledge in the sun and ate some lunch. The weather was perfect and we had the whole place to ourselves. And right then, when things couldn’t possibly get any cooler, it happened.As we sat there eating, the sun blinked out for a second, Carlo and I looked up at the same time to see a glorious California condor soaring a mere 200 feet above us!
The big bird circled around us for a few minutes and then landed on a ledge high up the canyon wall just down stream from us. And there he sat, appearing to just watch us, maybe 1000yards away. We couldn’t really gauge its size or whether or not it had tags from that distance, but it was still cool and we were able to squeeze off some photos.
After about an hour, we decided to roll up our gear and head for home. Just as we had climbed out of the gorge and onto the upper ledges around the falls, the condor took flight again and once more began to circle above us. We got out the camera and began shooting him some more when the bird landed on top of the falls and started stretching out his wings.
Carlo said, “Hey Dad, I think he’s posing for you”.
And sure enough, the condor stayed put long enough for me squeeze off to great photos. The bird was a little one, by condor standards, maybe only 6 feet from tip to tip, (proly just a kid) and he was tagged with number 55. 
But it was still awesome sight. This went on for about 15 minutes and then the condor stretched out his wings one more time and off he went. Classic.
With big condor wings on our feet, we set out up the creek to the trail and began the long climb out of the canyon.
Again, Carlo impressed me with his speed and endurance and we arrived back at the trailhead in under 2 hours (condor sighting included). All in all, I am a very proud dirtbag dad.
I just cant get enough of this place.
