White
White Cascade was my favorite of all the waterfalls on the Tuolumne River. It is certainly not the biggest (82 ft. high), or the most powerful, but I found it to be the most interesting. I really liked the shape of it, the top half of it cascading steeply down, then the last half plunging off the ledge (losing contact with the bedrock), into a large and inviting pool. It is powerful yet pretty at the same time. It is interesting that it is called a Cascade, because it is not a cascade at all. It is a horsetail waterfall. (compare that to Waterwheel and Le Conte “Falls” which really are cascades – someone messed up on the naming of these waterfalls if you ask me). White Cascade is also called Glen Aulin “Falls”, but the former name is the official name of this waterfall.
My plan was to eat my lunch here at this waterfall on my hike back up, but I literally could not make it that far and had to stop before I got to it. I almost made it, but I came to the lower cascade just below this one, and realized that there was absolutely no way I could make the climb up to the top of the small cascade. I stopped at the bottom of it, and had to lay down for a good half hour to regain my energy so I could climb the little hill. In the meantime, it started to snow harder and it got a lot colder as well. I did not care about that because I could not move. After resting, I ate an apple and part of my sandwich, then decided I could hike up the rest of the way. I stopped, obviously, at White Cascade and took some photos, then continued on up the rest of the way to the top. I still had five miles to get back to the car, and the snow continued on.