The return to Yosemite National Park. Rancheria Falls at Hetch Hetchy Reservoir. My goal: bag the two waterfalls I missed the first time I went to Rancheria. It was Good Friday.
The first time I went here I was injured and had to cut my trip short. This time I would get to these new waterfalls. Surely? I made a wrong turn on the drive to Yosemite. This was a bad omen. I have driven this road a hundred times and have never done that before. I was five miles down the road before I realized something was wrong. Duh.
I arrived at the park entrance at 7:45AM. There was no one at the kiosk. Huh? Is this due to budget cuts or something? That is just horribly stupid to let everyone in for free because of budget cuts. This is the main source of income for the park! I feel that the park service does (and has always done) a poor job managing the resources that they have been given. I can give many examples but not right now. Let’s get hiking.
There was only one other car in the backpackers parking lot. I wondered if I’d see him (or her) at Rancheria Falls. That would be fine with me just so long as he was not camping at my secret spot. Otherwise blood might be shed. It was Good Friday after all. (kidding of course, but read on …)
The snow melt was probably the same or a bit higher from the last time I went to Rancheria Falls. Tueeulala Falls was looking sad and I was surprised, I was expecting a lot more flow in it. It was very misty crossing the bridge at Wapama Falls but it was not overflowing onto the bridge. It looked like they had just recently rebuilt some of the bridges at Wapama. Interesting. You would think that if they were going to do that they would build them higher so the water never overflows onto the bridge making it too dangerous to cross (or re-damaging it). Of course they did not do that.
After Wapama Falls I saw no one until I arrived at Rancheria. It was noon, my secret spot was available and there was no one else around. There was no shade, however. I was certain I remembered shade when I was here before. One hour later a couple guys came strolling up, clearly wanting my campsite. This is my spot! Thankfully, they moved on to somewhere else and I never saw them again. No blood was shed on this day. Except for Jesus’ blood on the cross when He died for you. Do you know this?
I massively underestimated the hike to my first waterfall in the afternoon. It was 3 miles with 1500 ft. elevation gain. It would not take more than 1.5 hours. Surely? It took 2 hours and 15 minutes. Getting down to the viewpoint from the top of the ridge was a lot more difficult than I thought. I arrived just before 7PM and it was extremely cold from the wind at this exposed location along the cliff. The waterfall was supposed to be in shade at 7PM but it was only partially in shade. By 7:10PM I took my photos and packed it up, I could not wait any longer. I would be hiking back in the dark as it was. I think I got a pretty good photo, anyway.
Upper Rancheria Falls is a massive 330 ft. high cascade. It is spectacular and the viewpoint is magnificent. I feel grossly under appreciated in finding these incredible waterfalls in Yosemite National Park. I am sure no one has ever seen this one before. It is off the beaten track and who would even know it is here? Hidden away, in canyon deep.
Once back on the trail I ran all the way back down until it got too dark after which I got my headlamp out and walked the rest of the way. I saw a couple bats flying around me and one came within two inches of flying right into me before veering off at the last milli-second. You may be blind but come on, that is a bit too close for comfort. I arrived back at camp and went straight to bed. It was a very good day in Yosemite National Park.
It was dance show weekend again. I did not want to go hiking in the morning in the Bay Area. The waterfalls there are not flowing much anymore. I did not want to hike in the foothills with poison oak and ticks either. I wanted to go into the mountains. However, my wife wanted to leave early for the Bay Area which meant I had very little time for hiking. I really had no desire to go back to Bassi Falls but it is the only hike I had time for. Bassi Falls it is.
Journey’s first ever hike was to Bassi Falls but it was in the off-season and the waterfall was not flowing very well when we were there. She had never seen it at high flow. Hopefully she would enjoy it much more this time. I don’t think she really cared. She just wanted to get out hiking!
We arrived at sunrise. I hoped to be able to drive in to the trailhead official but the road was gated even though there was no snow and it was dry. We had to hike from Ice House Road which would add another 1 or 1 1/2 miles to my hike and I did not have much time to begin with. My wife would not be happy if I was late.
There was a little bit of snow still on the trail so Journey was very happy about that. She loves the snow! We arrived at the waterfall in short order. Bassi Falls was full and roaring.
Surprisingly there was someone camped here at the waterfall. He was just getting out of his tent when we arrived. Journey, of course, was very curious about this strange sight and went up to see him. Why the heck is there someone sleeping here? she said. She is so funny. Actually, I was thinking of camping here at Bassi Falls myself. I thought it would be a good one to do for Journey’s first ever backpacking trip but I am not sure. It would be very easy and she would not even be remotely tired when we got to camp. She is a very high energy dog. I think it will be better to have a longer and more tiring hike for her so she will sleep a lot better at camp. I don’t know. We shall see.
We took photos and then headed back. It took a lot less time to get to the waterfall than I thought, even with hiking from Ice House Road. I was about 45 minutes ahead of schedule when we got back to the car. My wife would not be mad at me but the traffic sucked going to the Bay Area anyway. Surprise surprise. At least it was a beautiful morning at Bassi Falls in Eldorado National Forest.
Don’t worry folks. I have plenty of new stuff coming this spring. I have four trips already planned for Yosemite National Park (weather permitting) and there will be some epic new waterfalls found. Don’t worry, be happy. In the meantime, Journey and I made a return trip to Grouse Falls. I knew that all the snow from last week would be melted and I would have no troubles driving the road this week. I did check the satellite images beforehand to make sure and I was not wrong. The road was all clear.
I am certainly the first person this year to visit Grouse Falls. I know that because there were two blockades across the road of fallen tree branches. I had to get out and cut them down in order to get by in my vehicle. The road is a bit rougher than I remember. You definitely need a high clearance vehicle now but it is easy as long as you have that kind of thing. We got to the last turnoff and parked. It is still a half mile to the trailhead from here but both Journey and myself had more than enough of the long excruciating drive and needed to get out and walk. I could have driven this last half mile except there was a big tree down in the road just before the trailhead. In any case I am glad we walked.
The trail to Grouse Falls is messed up. This area was burned in the Mosquito Fire of 2022. The trail is very indistinct in some places and hard to follow. There are a lot of downed trees and branches strewn all over the trail. It is not difficult as long as you know where to go. (which I do of course). The overlook is completely gone. Burned in the fire. You can still see the waterfall, obviously. However, there is a better viewpoint down the hill a short distance. It is a steep descent but Journey is awesome and had no trouble. Then she waited very patiently beside me while I took photos because there was no place for her to sit down on the steep hillside.
Grouse Falls was flowing magnificently. This is the perfect time to see it with the snow melting right now. A spectacular 504 ft. high waterfall. The other side of the canyon (where the falls is) was not burned (thankfully).
After taking photos we went back up to the non-existent overlook where there is a spot to sit. Journey ate her breakfast and I enjoyed the waterfall, then we hiked back up the trail. I spent a lot of time on the way back clearing debris and branches from the trail. I think I made it a small bit better. Journey was wondering what the heck I was doing and why I was going so slowly. Hurry up, daddy!
When we got back to the car we had only hiked two miles. I could tell Journey did not want to quit yet and neither did I so I put my tripod in the car and then we continued down a different logging road for 2.5 miles all the way to South Branch Grouse Creek. It was easy hiking. In total we hiked about 7 miles. It was a wonderful brisk morning in Tahoe National Forest.
I am very much enjoying my hikes with Journey. I am having more fun going on an easier hike with her that I have done before than going on something more difficult by myself. And she loves it so much, it makes me very happy. This week’s journey to a repeat waterfall: Grouse Falls. Well, it was “supposed to be” Grouse Falls.
As we drove up Mosquito Ridge Road I could see all the small creeks and waterfalls were flowing. I was surprised but this was a good sign for Grouse Falls. It should be spectacular. Then we hit the snow. At the turnoff for Grouse Falls there was too much snow to drive the road. I expected there to be some snow but not this much. We decided to hike from here. It would be 10 miles round trip which is not too bad but actually it was. There was six to eight inches on the ground for pretty much the entire hike. It was quite difficult, especially for Journey. She loved it though. She would run way ahead in the snow and she was having a blast. But somehow she hurt her leg. It did not seem to slow her down and she was not limping but she would not let me touch it so I know it was hurting. We hiked an hour on the road and we were not even half way there. I felt that another 3 hours of hiking in this deep snow would be too much with her hurt leg so I decided to turn back. If there was just 3-4 inches less snow I think we would have had no troubles making it all the way, and with the warm weather coming this week all this snow will probably be gone so perhaps we will try this again soon.
On the way back I stopped at this waterfall by the roadside. I have seen it before but never had a good chance to stop and photograph it. Although it is on an unnamed stream it is a very pretty one and I think it deserves a spot on my website. I am calling it Mosquito Ridge Falls and it is 60 ft. high. It was a wonderful snow day in Tahoe National Forest.
Since my wife had to take our daughter back to the Bay Area after her spring break, Journey had a choice to either go with mom or myself. If it was really up to her she would certainly choose mom but she would have a lot more fun with me. The decision is made: hiking with daddy. But there was four feet of new snow in the mountains and I did not feel like that would be a good spot to take Journey this weekend. She would be swimming. Literally. Maybe I should go on a lower elevation hike. I decided to go to Burma Falls in Oroville. I have not been to this one in a long time and there would not be any poison oak or ticks.
I thought the gate opened at sunrise but I was wrong. It did not open until 8AM. I could not wait around until then. It would be too late getting to the waterfall for photos. I thought about just going up to Table Mountain but I did not feel like it so I found a place to park off the road outside the gate and we walked in. It was only an extra 1.5 miles round trip so not a big deal.
It is an easy and flat walk along the road to the waterfall. The last time I was here there were cows right on the road. I was worried about that with Journey along but we saw no cows today. Even if there were the road was wide so we probably could have gotten past them easily. I was also a bit worried about the sun because we had a longer walk and thus were a little bit late so we ran a bit on the downhill sections. This made up time and we arrived at the waterfall on time. The last part involves a bit of scrambling along the creek and hillside. Journey did excellent. She’s getting to be an expert now with the scrambling.
We rested at the waterfall and Journey ate her breakfast while I took photos.
On the way back there was a vulture sitting on a railing by the road. This was so funny: Journey just casually and slowly walked towards it. So nonchalantly. La la la la. Then all of a sudden she bolted towards it. The bird took off just in time. It was so hilarious. And I got it all on video. We also saw a couple squirrels on the hike. Journey loves chasing squirrels also (and she did). It was a very lovely morning in Oroville and we saw no one on the entire hike.
