Leon Turnbull Photography

This is Far Lower Piute Creek Falls, where I camped on my second last night.

My final day! I had to make it back to Hetch Hetchy by about 4:30pm because the gate closes at 5pm. I needed to allow 8 hours for the hike. So my brilliant math calculation told me that 4:30pm minus 8 hours is 6:30am. This the math of a madman. Doh! I’m an idiot. I was up early anyway (I always am) but I could have at least allowed time to have some coffee in the morning.

Anyhow I made very good time through the horrible brushy section and arrived at Smith Meadows in 3 hours. (it took 4 hours on the way up). From here it was 3 hours back to the car. I had forgotten about the horrible brushy section just past Smith Meadows. I guess I had blocked it out of my mind. Well that section took a bit of time to negotiate but finally made it past all the brushiness and then I was home free. All down hill back to the car and on a decent trail. I arrived back at 1PM.

I drove straight to Pizza Factory in Groveland. My usual after backpacking place to stop.

So as for the trip I did not see too much wildlife: just one deer, one big lizard, and two harmless rubber boa snakes. I saw a lot of fresh bear tracks and scat but never did see any of them which was disappointing.

I saw 13 waterfalls including 11 new ones. What does that bring my Yosemite total to? I have now seen 86 out of 161 Yosemite waterfalls or 53%. Hmph. Still a long way to go but I do have some more Yosemite trips I hope to make this spring. All in all it was a 6 day fabulous backpacking trip into the Grand Canyon of the Tuolumne River.