Read more: The 101 best California experiencesĪbove, we saw the reservoir-filled valley. As we hikers strolled across the top of the 430-foot-high dam, we could see the downstream flow of the Tuolumne River. The first thing I saw after claiming a parking spot was a vivid rainbow hanging in the mist above the dam's spillway. "You'll see," she said with a knowing smile. What does she like so much about the valley?
While waiting for rangers to clear a fallen tree from the road, I met Munson Boyers, who was headed into Hetch Hetchy with a friend to look at wildflowers. (Christopher Reynolds / Los Angeles Times)īy 9:30 the next morning, I'd made the 10-mile drive from the lodge to the O'Shaughnessy Dam, where the Tuolumne is tamed and the Wapama Falls Trail begins. The Evergreen Lodge in Groveland includes lodgings and a tent-camping area where peak-season prices begin at $130 for a night in a pre-pitched tent. But the rustic woodwork and vintage photos in the tavern offer hints of the old days. It's an upscale family lodging now, with a swimming pool, massages and aromatherapy, the old gas station converted into a bike rental station. That first night, I stayed in a pre-pitched tent at the Evergreen Lodge, which was built 102 years ago to house the dam-builders. But instead of entering the national park from the south on Highway 41, I arrived via Highways 49 and 120 (the latter also known as Big Oak Flat Road). To reach the valley, I had headed north on I-5, as Yosemite visitors from Southern California usually do. (And fishing is allowed from the reservoir's shoreline.) It's a 38-mile drive from Yosemite Valley, 39 miles from Groveland's Main Street.
It makes a great day trip if you're already headed to Yosemite or Gold Country towns like Groveland, Jamestown, Sonora or Columbia. Still, Hetch Hetchy has its own access road on the west side of the park and a lot fewer visitors than that other valley. "As a local, I hope you won't paint too rosy a picture," retired ranger Laurel Munson Boyers told me. It's best to arrive soon after Hetch Hetchy Road opens at 7 a.m. (Christopher Reynolds / Los Angeles Times)Īlso, on these summer days the valley's roughly 150 parking spaces have often filled before noon, forcing later visitors to abandon their plans. At the dam, which visitors can walk across, falling water creates a fine mist, and rainbows are frequent. There's no boating or swimming in the reservoir, by order of the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission, which runs the gravity-driven system that carries the water about 160 miles west to the Bay Area.įrom the Hetch Hetchy Valley's O'Shaughnessy Dam, the Tuolumne River flows into the San Joaquin Valley. There's no camping unless you're using Hetch Hetchy to begin a backpacking expedition.
"A woman broke her ankle up there a few weeks ago."īefore we go further, I'm not saying Hetch Hetchy is a substitute for the Yosemite Valley experience. He highly recommended the Wapama Falls Trail - "but watch your footing," he said.
"It's underrated," attendant Bobby Williams told me at the activity desk of the nearby Evergreen Lodge. Quantifying its effect on hikers is harder. Besides providing drinking water for 2.7 million people, the Tuolumne's downhill flow generates about 20% of San Francisco's electricity. The reservoir is eight miles long and up to 306 feet deep. You could say the water always wins here, because it fills the valley, or that it never truly does, because the dam holds it back. At about 3,900 feet above sea level, Hetchy is lower than most of the park, so its flowers bloom earlier and it has a longer hiking season. Tall falls? Check (especially during my late June visit). (Christopher Reynolds / Los Angeles Times) The Hetch Hetchy Valley's highlights include Wapama Falls and Tueeulala Falls, whose waters run into the reservoir created by the O'Shaughnessy Dam, built in 1923.
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