Our adventure for today took us to the Hetch Hetchy Valley. The Valley is within Yosemite National Park and runs basically parallel to Yosemite Valley which is over one big ridge to the south. John Muir, American naturalist, described the Hetch Hetchy Valley as being just as stunning as Yosemite Valley. Unfortunately, in the early 1930s the City of San Francisco claimed Hetch Hetchy and built the O’Shaunessey Dam blocking the Tuolumne River and creating a 2,000 acre reservoir. The valley is now under water. John Muir argued unsuccessfully to put the dam elsewhere but he, and all the rest of the world, were thwarted and a bunch of make-work WPA employees showed up and drowned the scenery forever.

The reservoir and surrounding mountains are still quite spectacular. Thousand foot waterfalls fall from the adjacent granite bluffs directly into the reservoir. When we were there, the dam operators were running the powerhouse turbines and the discharges were spewing from the face of the dam, crashing a couple hundred feet into the chasm below. There is so much spray coming from the discharges that it rains up on top of the dam, even in bright sunshine. The Tuolumne River then continues downstream into an area called the Poopenaut Valley (no kidding) which seems to be named after municipal sewer pipe spelunkers but it is still breathtakingly beautiful and very rugged terrain. Recent rains have greatly helped the trees and flowers in the area although the tree-kill from the last ten years of nasty drought is evident.

The 18 mile long road in and out is narrow, twisty and bumpy but the drive is certainly worth the slow, lumpy ride. We would have been delighted to see the Valley before it was flooded but we aren’t old enough. The granite cliffs and mountains, large mountain meadows, and intermittent forests along the drive are magnificent and the Valley ain’t bad either.

There’s photos. Click the link. https://photos.app.goo.gl/zXPBusGwvy9JC2ow5