We spent the day over at Hetch Hetchy Valley. That is the sister valley of Yosemite that the folks from San Francisco managed to wrangle a deal to dam the river back around 1920. There are still some hard feelings and an organization whose goal it is to “restore Hetch Hetchy”. It is a shame that the beautiful valley is lost forever. It is also good that some laws have changed since the land was actually a National park at the time but that didn’t protect the river from development. The laws now protect the waterways as well.

The area is still pretty. It is fed by snowmelt that comes into the lake through hanging valleys so there are many waterfalls. We hiked a trail that forded at the feet of smaller falls and had foot bridges across boulder piers at the bottom of the biggest fall. Beautiful and exciting to cross. (it was safe Mom, they had just rebuilt from any Spring damage).

The trailhead was through a 100 yard carved stone tunnel. That was pretty cool in itself. It was even cooler that on our way back a young deer was so curious he started into the tunnel. He listened to the voices coming through it and watched intently before finally heading off up hill. Fun to watch.