Rainbows
My plan in the afternoon after going to Jawbone and Granite Creek Falls was to go to Hetch Hetchy and spend the night. First though, I went back to Groveland and ate an entire medium sized pizza at the Pizza Factory. Hmm, that was good. But at Hetch Hetchy, I was denied by the park rangers for no decent reason. I wanted to spend the night in the backpacker’s parking area, so I could get up super early and hike to Rancheria Falls to get there for sunrise and good photography of that waterfall, as well as getting sunset shots of Wapama Falls that evening. But the rangers said that I was not a backpacker, I was a day hiker, and they would not give me a permit. What the heck? When I came here, I had no idea this would be an issue at all, it seemed like such a simple thing, and I know other people have done similar things here in the past. What is the problem with giving someone a permit to sleep overnight at Hetch Hetchy? And why is Hetch Hetchy so unfriendly towards photographers anyway? It is impossible to do any sunset or sunrise photography there because the park is closed at those times. The only chance to photograph the waterfalls in good light is if it is an overcast day, which is extremely rare in the spring. Needless to say, I was very upset.
So after being kicked out of Hetch Hetchy I decided to just go home that evening, instead of staying another night. First though, I went on another hike (to a non existent waterfall – another strikeout), then I went back to Rainbow Pool Falls at sunset. There were quite a few more people here this evening, compared to the previous evening (when there were none). I went down to the falls, and tried to get some shots, but there were quite a few fisherman in the way, so I had to be patient (I’m not good at that). There were even some fishermen at the top of the falls standing in the water. I thought they were going to slip in and go over the falls. That would have been interesting (but not for them). Well, no one fell in, so I went back up to my car and drove home. It was a good weekend, but it sure could have been a lot better.