Leon Turnbull Photography

In the morning I woke and began to climb up into Piute Canyon in search of more waterfalls. I wasn’t expecting to get far and indeed I did not. However, I did make it to Lower Piute Creek Falls which is a marvelous tiered waterfall consisting of a couple sweet 30 ft. drops (only one tier is shown in this photo but I took many photos). I was actually really happy to make it to this lower falls. There is a bigger waterfall further up canyon but there was absolutely no way to continue. It was just too cliffy and much too brushy. I returned back to camp and ate breakfast.

It was still early in the morning so I decided to pack up and head out, up up and away, out of the canyon. I would be going home one day early but I had seen everything I wanted to or could see and there was nothing else. Let’s go home!

I had 3500 ft. to climb out of the Grand Canyon of the Tuolumne plus the additional 500 ft. up to Lower Piute Creek Falls that I made in the morning for a whopping 4000 ft. of elevation gain for the day. I would be doing most of the 3500 ft. in the heat of the afternoon. It was going to be a doozy. Nonetheless I felt good for the entire climb. My pack was a bit lighter now though probably still 37 or 38 pounds. It was only when I reached the top that I finally reached my limit and I was close to bonking. I do not think I could have climbed any more elevation if I had to. The last mile or so to Harden Lake was nice and flat. I found the same campsite that I had for the first night of the trip. The frogs were still there (and loud). The mosquitoes made their first appearance of the trip in the evening so I ended up going into my tent before the sunset. Also I saw human. There were a couple guys camped at Harden Lake on the other side of the lake. These are the only people I saw for the entire trip (6 days).  This is world famous Yosemite National Park and I saw absolutely no one until now. When I was at Waterwheel Falls there was literally no other human within 30 miles. When I spoke to them in the morning they said they were not planning to go down to the river. Their trip route did not seem to be an especially interesting one with not to mention far too much bushwhacking involved. To each his own I guess. Well I sure had an awesome trip. And tomorrow there would be pizza.