Hiking the Terrain of Hetch Hetchy in Yosemite
With an amazing season of snowfall finally starting to melt off, my favorite California parks — Sequoia and Yosemite — have finally started to become more accessible for great, brief backpacking trips. While poking around on my various hiking sites for a different type of hike in Yosemite, I realized that I had never been to the famous reservoir that provides San Francisco with all of its drinking water. One look at the pictures of Hetch Hetchy and I was sold.
It’s always a thrilling feeling for me to get on the road and head off on a trip. Growing up with an adventurous mom, it was not uncommon for her to wake me up in the middle of the night to pack for a surprise weeks-long trip. From driving to California from Cleveland or reverse over 10 times, backpacking Ireland almost entirely on foot over 3 months, or taking two month train trips to Canada, the PNW and Colorado, a trip just doesn’t seem adventurous unless it’s a solid distance away from home.
Yosemite iss the perfect time and distance to drive feel like I’m truly on an adventure. The park’s beauty is continuously written about yet its scope and beauty is never properly captured. I won’t attempt to describe Yosemite, but it truly is grand and adventurous. It had been several months since my last trip to Yosemite, so I felt that I really needed to return and bask in the adventure.
Hetch Hetchy Reservoir is a massive, 8-mile+ valley that was flooded in 1934 to provide water to San Francisco and the surrounding area. Before being submerged, the stunning walls rivaled Yosemite Valley for sheer size and beauty. Despite being covered by hundreds of feet of water, the visible parts of the walls still rise in excess of 1,000 feet; it truly looked like I had wandered out into Jurassic Park.
Our destination of Rancheria Falls took us along the side of the beautiful reservoir, passing by the Wapama Falls before pushing onward another 4 or so miles to where we’d camp for the night. I’ll not go into much detail about the trail or destinations in Hetch Hetchy; if you are amazed by these views, you should research and go.
As I’ve been training fairly regularly the last 4–6 weeks to hike Mt. Whitney, I was prepared to breeze through a hike with minimal elevation gain. However, despite doing plenty of day hikes the last few months, getting back into the swing of carrying a loaded pack and being out of reach with society for a weekend was harder than I anticipated. Both Kait and I struggled the entire day with pushing ourselves on to our destination. After months in the city, with minimal nature and maximum stimulation/stress, it was difficult to go outside and just be still.
Despite our collective struggles and burning legs, we pressed on. Passing Wapama Falls was refreshing and overwhelming, reminding me of the incredible force that running water possesses. Swollen from snow-melt, the pounding falls soaked us as the water roared away down the rocks.
After a break at the Falls, we pushed on into the Hetch Hetchy backcountry, with stunningly diverse change of scenery. From Jurassic Park to dry and desert, to cold grey wilderness in under 10 miles is amazing. Giant insects, lizards, snakes and other creatures were popping up everywhere.
Hiking is an odd process for me (and others too I assume). As I’m only outdoors a few times per month, it’s immediately a difficult adjustment. Suddenly, all of the distractions and stress of daily life aren’t there to distract me and speed up my day into a blur. Conversation ebbs and flows, long periods of silence leaving me with the oddest trains of thought in my head. My mind wanders for what seems like hours, trying to ignore the pain in my knees or my back, berating myself for packing more than I needed.
Usually the hike is harder than anticipated, so my thoughts quickly turn to outrage that I am not in better shape, and from there meld into survival mode. Left-right-left-right, 20 more yards, don’t pitch your tent here, it’s probably worth it to make it to your destination, I’m never doing this again, I should just stop here — all swirls of positive and negative thoughts gusting around my mind as I stride along.
Oftentimes, I wonder if Kait is mad at me, because she’s been silent for what seems like hours. Was I talking too much, not listening, saying rude things? Those thoughts batter me for a few minutes. Then I look back and realize she’s not talking for the same reason I’m not: it’s hard to breathe in 90° weather with humidity, at altitude.
With our legs burning and will fading, we both moved on towards Rancheria Falls, urging each other on every few minutes when someone wanted to stop. Although there were many lovely open areas to make camp along the way, with beautiful views of the reservoir in the growing distance, I’m glad ultimately kept going to the original goal.
Different than the thundering, vertical Wapama Falls, Rancheria is more a series of vicious rapids, carving its way through the forest and down into the deeper parts of the reservoir. Surrounded by tall, crumbling peaks and beautiful, cold forest scenery, we made camp, set up some hammocks and spent hours scrambling around the falls, napping and raking in the views.
Wading into the water was both agonizing and refreshing, a great way to reset your day and calm your muscles. After warming up from the glacial chill, I finally started to feel at ease and capable of having no stimulation besides the nature and some photography. It’s unfortunate that right as one starts to feel at home and thrilled to be outdoors in the wild, the trip comes to an end due to another work week looming imminent.
Parts of Yosemite can be obnoxious with the amount of tourists and non-outdoors people congesting the views and trails for a day hike. Hetch Hetchy, to my delight, is far less crowded, and most of the crowd disappears once you pass the easy hike to Wapama Falls. Other than a wandering pack of Boy Scouts, we had only a few overnight companions along with us.
Nearby our campsite, several younger guys from San Francisco were freaking out, 1) because this was their first overnight trip to Yosemite and they had found a killer area to camp in, and 2), because they set up tent next to a rattlesnake’s lair. Needless to say, we were all very careful the remainder of the day to watch where our feet were stepping.
Yosemite land has always been consider sacred and spiritual by Native Americans and respectful visitors to the Valley, and every time I get there, I am reminded about this. Something about the rocks recharges the body and mind, filling you with an energy and peacefulness that is always needed.
We’ll be back soon, of course.
