Leon Turnbull Photography

It was time for my annual pilgrimage to Yosemite National Park. I always try to go here at least once per year. And of course, I try to see new waterfalls while I am there as well.

Someone recently mentioned they were attempting to hike every trail in Yosemite National Park (about 800 miles). I thought that would be an enormous achievement if he completes it. I would not want to do that. However, I thought that maybe I would like to see EVERY waterfall in Yosemite. That would be an even greater monumental achievement than hiking every trail. It is probably impossible because some waterfalls are likely very inaccessible, and also I am getting old. I don’t have too many years left in me, I imagine. Thus far I have seen 70 waterfalls in Yosemite out of 139 that I have catalogued, so that is about 50 percent. Baby steps. If I just continue each year on my pilgrim’s progress, I will get a little bit closer to that goal.

This year I saw four new waterfalls and a couple of them I can’t imagine anyone has ever seen before. It was an incredible trip. The destination: Lake Vernon in Hetch Hetchy.

I way overestimated the time it would take to drive to Hetch Hetchy. Google Maps said it would take 3 ½ hours. It only took 2 ½ hours (I was not speeding!). I arrived at the gate at 7:30AM, 30 minutes before it opened. Ah well, so I waited. I was first in line.

I got my permit and I was on the trail by about 8:30AM or so. I have never hiked up towards Lake Vernon before. It is interesting because there is old pavement on this very steep trail to the top of Wapama Falls. At some point in the past they built this road and drove up here. I cannot imagine how you could drive up here (or why). It is interesting.

It is a steep climb. The total elevation gain is 3100 ft. to Lake Vernon in 11 miles. A couple speedy groups passed me. One group of three that was going to Lake Vernon and another supersonic hiker who was going I don’t know where. It took longer than anticipated and I did not arrive at Lake Vernon until 3PM, and by the time I setup my camp and ate dinner it was after 4PM, so I had no time to go to the first waterfall as originally planned. I would have to see all the waterfalls on the second day. I just relaxed at camp, strolled up to see the lake, and took it easy. The other group was on the other side of the lake so I had the entire south side all to myself (and it is a big lake). It was absolutely gorgeous.

I saw no bears at Lake Vernon. I was disappointed. This is supposed to be one of the hot spots in Yosemite for bears. Nada for me. I did see a falcon that was hanging out near my camp. I think its nest was nearby on the other side of the creek, so that was cool to see.

I slept very well. My campsite was right beside the roaring Falls Creek. There are many campsites at this lake, but I chose to camp by the creek instead of by the lake. I would rather listen to the sound of a rushing creek, than the quiet of the lake. That’s just me.

I got up very early, in the dark. It is two miles down to the Lower Falls Creek Falls and I suspected it would take two hours, but I was hoping for less. It took exactly two hours. It was much more difficult than I expected. At first it was very easy going, walking along the open granite rock. Then it became very difficult, climbing up and down cliffs, and through brush, and crossing difficult streams. It was a lot of work and when I finally got down to the waterfall, I could see it was already in the sun. Was I too late? Well, the lower part of the falls was in the sun but the upper (main) part was still in shade. I climbed up beside the waterfall (more hard work) and reached a ledge where I could see it and photograph it. Lower Falls Creek Falls is a magnificent waterfall, dashing through a narrow slot in the canyon in a few tiers. Awesome. One down, three to go.

I ate my breakfast at the falls and filled up with water, then made the long trek back to camp. I went a different way back up, hoping it would be easier, but it wasn’t. It took two hours going back. This is a tough one to see! Back at camp, I made my lunch and rested. I had four hours to recover before heading out on my next hike…

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Sometimes it is not all about the waterfalls. Sometimes it is about the scenery. That is what I am telling myself anyway.

I plan all my trips around waterfalls, of course. Sometimes it does not work out as planned. Especially this year, 2020. For my big Fall backpacking trip, I was not planning to go to this location, I had a different trip planned. The fires. The smoke. That put the nix on my big plan this year. For my alternate trip, Plan Z, I chose northern Yosemite National Park. This was pretty much the only place in all of California where the air seemed all right and not too smoky. There *are* waterfalls here that I had not been to before, and I thought they would be flowing decent, at least a few of them. And you can’t go wrong with Yosemite. I go to Yosemite every year, but this year, I had not been to Yosemite because of COVID-19. I thought I was not going to make it this year, but then Plan Z came into being, and off I went to my favorite national park.

I hiked in from Twin Lakes on the eastern side of the Sierra, hiking through the Hoover Wilderness, over Mule Pass, and into northern Yosemite National Park. I arrived at Twin Lakes on Friday evening. If I arrived any later I would have been out of luck. Apparently, you have to pay for parking here. You should not have to pay for parking at a wilderness trailhead, and I did not think I had to pay. I have hiked here before and I did not pay (though maybe, I was supposed to pay?) There are no signs about parking or about paying for parking, and I was not sure where the trailhead parking was, so I asked the attendant at the campground kiosk, (who was about to close). He told me I had to pay $15. Well, crap. Even though I thought I was being screwed, I payed the $15 and parked. (I don’t think I was being screwed, but I also think there should be free wilderness trailhead parking).

It was after 6PM. My plan was to hike up to Barney Lake and camp the first night. I would arrive at the lake well after dark. I saw one deer just as I started the hike, the only wildlife I saw on the whole trip. The hike took longer than I expected and I did not arrive at the lake until 8PM. (sunset was about 6:30PM). There were quite a few people on the trail, coming down from the lake, even after dark. There was also someone camped at the lake (in the best spot), but I found another place to setup camp, and went to bed.

I got up early, packed up, and continued my hike. First stop: Robinson Creek Falls (pictured here). This was the only waterfall on the entire trip. It was not flowing very decent, but I took a photo anyway. It is a big waterfall and would be impressive at high flow (if you can get to it at high flow). It was also quite difficult to get up close to. There is a large rock slide beside the creek. The boulders were huge. This, as I found out soon enough, would be the main theme for the trip: Enormous rock slides. I managed to find a path over the rocks and to the creek, but only by squeezing through a very narrow slot through a couple large rocks. If I was two inches wider I would not have made it (I am not kidding – on the way back I almost could not squeeze through). Once at the creek, I had to cross over to the other side of the stream to photograph the waterfall. In high water, this is not going to be possible, but the waterfall certainly would be much better if you could find a view of it.

So what can I say about the rest of the trip? Are you still reading? This is going to be long, and there are no more waterfalls. But as I said, the scenery is impeccable. It is Yosemite National Park.

Mule Pass is at 10,500 feet elevation. I started at 8300 feet at Barney Lake. It is a killer climb. It was not so much the high elevation, but it was my 40 pound backpack. I think that is what really did me in. This was intended to be a 5 day trip, but I ended up cutting it short because of the lack of water. On the west side of the pass, there was quite a bit of water flowing in the streams, even the small unnamed streams. I thought this was a good sign. Piute Canyon should have a good, decent, amount of water in it. Wrong. On the east side of the pass, there was no water at all. On the descent, I was starting to worry that Piute Canyon would be completely dry. I was almost out of water, and if that creek was dry I would be dead (literally). Also, the smoke was starting to roll in to the canyon from the south and it was starting to get noticeably bad. I chose this area because there was no smoke here! Ugh. I prayed it would clear up by evening. (and thankfully, it did).

I arrived at the bottom of the canyon. I could not hear the creek flowing. This could be really bad. It was a half mile up the canyon to where I planned to camp beside the waterfall. As I continued and approached closer to the creek, I could finally hear a trickle. Whew. I would not die. But it was definitely not flowing much. Not nearly enough for a decently flowing waterfall. This was very disappointing to me. I really thought this creek and waterfall would be good, even this late in a dry year. I camped beside the almost dry waterfall. I was tired. I slept well.

What would I do the next day? I did not want to go home yet. I decided to explore down Piute Canyon. Maybe there would be more water in the creek downstream. The hike started off tremendously well. There is no trail, but it is easy hiking and when the canyon opened up it was incredibly beautiful. Then I came to a dead end. THE SLIDE. I don’t know when this rock slide occurred, it was a very long time ago, but it is absolutely MASSIVE. It spans the entire canyon, from one end to the other, and up the other side (over a quarter mile wide). The rocks are absolutely ENORMOUS, from one end to the other. I could find no easy way past them, and I spent a couple hours trying to do it. This is no simple rock hop! I finally gave up. I think that it can be done and I just did not go the correct way, but I was tired, and I decided it was not worth the effort because of the lack of water. It was time to go home.

I ate my lunch, then proceeded back up to the top of Mule Pass and down the other side. I stopped at Robinson Lake for the night. There was no one there when I arrived (so I got to choose the best spot). Someone came up later, however, and camped near by. I told him I was coughing a lot and would probably be keeping him awake at night. I think the smoke was causing me to cough so much. (it was not horrible, but there was still a little bit of smoke in the air). I hope I did not keep him awake, but I probably did. I did warn him, however, so it is not my fault; he could have camped further away. Anyway, I enjoyed the beautiful alpenglow at the lake at sunset. The next day was a very long and tiring slog back to my car at Twin Lakes. Thankfully, it was all downhill. I arrived at my car at about noon and got home by dinner time. Pizza again (thank you, Tara). It was a good time in Hoover Wilderness and Yosemite National Park.

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Here is the link to the video. Please watch!

https://youtu.be/tpEc9P8yv4g

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Upper Tenaya Creek Falls, 330 ft. high in total. There was no breeze at this lower section and the mosquitoes were out of this world. I did not spend much time there!

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I got up at 4AM to go on my morning hike in Yosemite. The family did not want to go with me so I let them sleep in. I found out afterwards that Nekoda would have come with me. I am mad at myself about this because I thought none of them wanted to come.

It was very warm when I started the hike in the dark. However, there were no mosquitoes! I anticipated they would be out once the sun came up. Indeed, I really thought about sleeping in myself. I was so bummed about the hike the previous evening, I was not feeling good about doing another hike in the morning. I forced myself to get up out of bed. I am so glad I did.

I anticipated that about half of my hike would be off trail and through the forest. Again, this would not be good because there would be more mosquitoes in the forest and brush. However, I came to the turnoff point from the main trail, and I found a good, well defined trail leading off in my intended direction. It was not just a path, it was a good trail. I was shocked to see this. Was there a trail leading all the way to the waterfall viewpoint? I know others have probably been to see this waterfall, but I would be very surprised if there was a trail going to it. The trail continued in my direction almost all the way to the waterfall. This saved me a lot of time bushwhacking through the forest. It was awesome. I was almost all the way to the waterfall viewpoint when I finally realized where this trail was going. It was not going to the waterfall, but it was going up to the top of Mt Watkins. Now this finally made a lot more sense. In fact, I was almost to the top of Mt Watkins already. The question was, however, would I be able to see the waterfall from the top of Mt Watkins? I did not know the answer, but I knew for certain that I could see the falls from the ridge below, so I turned off the beautiful trail and down into the forest. It was a very short jaunt and then I was on the ridge overlooking Tenaya Canyon and Pywiack Cascade.

It was just past sunrise and the sun had not yet risen above the mountains. It was absolutely glorious. I took many photos until the sun came up. I could see Half Dome from this ridge, as well as the spectacular Tenaya Creek Canyon. The canyon and cliffs are incredible here with sheer dropoffs. Pywiack Cascade is about 740 ft. high, and there is a lower cascade as well that is over 150 ft. high. There is absolutely no possible way to get down to the bottom of this waterfall because of the cliffs. This is pretty much the only viewpoint of the waterfall as far as I know, but it is an amazing viewpoint.

Afterwards, I decided to climb up to the top of Mt Watkins since I only had another 200 ft. to the top. I was not really sure that I really wanted to climb up there, but decided I may as well do it since I had the time. It was a quick hike. You definitely cannot see Pywiack Cascade from the top, but there were more great views of Half Dome so I think it was worth it.

I hiked back down the mountain and to my car. There were zero mosquitoes on the entire hike. Even Jadon would have enjoyed the hike. Once I got back to the campsite, however, there were a lot of mosquitoes. Everyone was in the tent (2 out of 3 were still sleeping), so I made a fire to try to keep the buggers at bay. It worked somewhat but not well enough for the kids. They waited in the car while I packed up the tent.

I have said before that I have NEVER EVER seen a bear in any national park (in the USA or Canada). I have hiked probably a hundred times in Yosemite before (and backpacked) and never seen a bear. On our drive through the park to Tuolumne Meadows, my wife Tara saw a bear along the road. I did not see it. But this is the year of the bear, is it not? If the cycle is to be broken, it must be on this trip. Our campsite at Tuolumne Meadows was on the very end of the campground, next to the river and the forest. I was saying to Tara that if any bears were to come into the campground, they would have to come through our campsite first. Less than five minutes after saying that, Tara said, There’s a bear! Guess what? I saw it! The cycle is broken! It was up above our campsite meandering through the forest and not very close to us, but it was most definitely a bear, and it was most definitely in the national park. If Tara had not pointed it out, I am certain I would have missed it.

On the drive back home, we stopped in Groveland at Pizza Factory (the usual lunch stop from a Yosemite trip). It would have been a great trip if not for the mosquitoes, and I am bummed about it (mostly for the kids’ sakes), and also I’m sure the kids would have enjoyed it much more if they had come with me on the morning hike. Jadon’s rating was 0 out of 10 for the weekend (I don’t blame him). Nekoda’s rating was 6 out of 10. Oh well.

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