The South Yuba ("The River") meanders, twists, tumbles, and rages its
way more than sixty miles from its source at 7000-plus elevation near
Donner Pass in the northern Sierra Nevada. As it flows, the River's
cold, clean waters change from yellow-green in quiet pools, to emerald,
to white-capped midnight blue down the shale-lined and boulder-strewn
canyons--through pines, firs, cedars, oaks, madrone, and manzanita and
between banks of lichen- and moss-covered trunks and rocks, shrubs and
vines, wildflowers and poison oak--to its confluence with the north and
middle forks of the Yuba at Englebright reservoir.

Thankfully, The River is mostly undisturbed by roads and other serious
human interference. A few bridges, weathered and aged, seem almost a
natural part of the water, rocks, and vegetation.

You can traipse along a trail and find a sunny/shady spot in one of The
River's peaceful stretches and be alone or spread your blanket on a
sandy beach, dotted with river lovers, young and old, and frolicking
and splashing children and dogs.

We four photographers, all transplants from somewhere else (as are most
Nevada Countyans, attracted by the trees and good, clean air, and The
River), have explored the South Yuba for decades, hiking its trails and
crossings. We've spent countless summer days with our children, moving
from sun to shade, boulders to beaches. And we have mourned the
deaths, several every year: kayakers capsized and caught in The River's
cold and rocky underworld, and carefree and careless young people drawn
to jump, despite the warnings, from its boulders and shale cliffs.

The four of us have chosen to make photographs of the South Yuba and
its environs at the crossings: Rainbow Road, near its source; Bowman
Road, near Fuller Lake; Washington (and Canyon Creek); Edwards
Crossing; Purdon Crossing; the bridge at Highway 49, where Hoyt's Trail
to Purdon begins; and Bridgeport, site of the old covered bridge, the
longest single-span wooden covered bridge in the country.

The River has been much-photographed and written about; it was our
challenge to document these sites and to convey the enduring beauty,
power, and majesty of the South Yuba. The River is a contradiction:
austere and lively; disinterested and nourishing; unforgiving,
restorative.

by Judy Crowe for the photographers: Leslie Elias, Dee LeVan, Gene
Crowe, Judy Crowe. May 2005.