Slept good in the cold. Couldn’t undock the camper because
of the crooked site, so headed out to Hetch Hetchey Dam and reservoir. Beautiful drive but when we arrived at the
ranger station, we were 4” too wide so had to turn around. But, just down the road was a National Forest
campground called Diamond O. It was
awesome! All the sites are big and
level. So we decided to undock, pay for
a site and continue on our trip to Hetch Hetchey. We struck out on the 5 mile hike up to Wapama
Falls. Absolutely beautiful! It took about 4 hours. (even though I realize
I’m not in my 20’s or 30’s anymore.)
Diamond O campground is wonderful. The Tuolumne River is right out our back
window. Our neighbors gave us some
rainbow trout. Ron filleted them and
we’ll have them tomorrow. Camp hosts are
great. Park just opened so we got to
meet and greet with all of them. Good
visiting!
Some history on Hetch Hetchey…..Wapama Falls is a 5 mile
hike that follows the shoreline of the reservoir. You get awesome views of both Tueculala and
Wapama Falls. Once you cross the dam,
then you go through a very dark and wet tunnel to get to the trail.
Hetch Hetchey is located in the NW corner of Yosemite NP,
which is home to 2 of North America’s largest waterfalls that plummet over
thousand-foot granite cliffs. In 1870
John Muir called this place “a wonderfully exact counterpart of the Great
Yosemite.” San Francisco in the late 1800’s was facing a chronic water and
power shortage. In 1913 a controversial
dam was authorized. The “O’Shaughnessy Dam was completed in 1923 and the
height of the dam was completed in 1938. Today it is a 117 billion gallon
reservoir, 8 miles long.
But….environmentalists would like to see it gone. It would definitely
rival Yosemite Valley in every aspect.
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| Wapama Falls in the distance |
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| Looking off O'Shaughnessy Dam |
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| Entering the tunnel |
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