Wild Western Adventure Pt. II

Hetch Hetchy and Bear Encounters

"Hetch Hetchy is a grand landscape garden, one of nature's rarest and most precious mountain temples. As in Yosemite, the sublime rocks of its walls seem to glow with life . . . while birds, bees, and butterflies help the river and waterfalls to stir all the air into music. . . . These temple destroyers, devotees of ravaging commercialism, seem to have a perfect contempt for Nature, and, instead of lifting their eyes to the God of the mountains, lift them to the Almighty Dollar. . . . Dam Hetch Hetchy! As well dam for water-tanks the people's cathedrals and churches, for no holier temple has ever been consecrated by the heart of man." John Muir, "The Yosemite," Century, 1912, pp. 249-62.

John Muir lost his fight, but this place is still gorgeous as a 300ft. deep reservoir Lake for the city of San Francisco's water supply, even though the city is 187 miles away. The pristine water here flows downhill all the way there with nothing but gravity to help it along. There are conservationist working still today to take this water supply away from the city, but it is literally going to take "an act of Congress."

We went to Wapama Falls while we were there. It was like being at the bottom of a ride at Six Flags where you stand on the bridge to get soaked...except, at the bridges over this fall it was a constant soaking of water and there were no dirty strangers around screaming!

One "extra" that really struck me was that at the bottom of a few falls that we saw we could usually find a rainbow in the mist.

On our way to the falls we hiked through a tunnel that was used when the engineers build the railroad and a rail engine strong enough to haul their material to HH to construct the monstrous dam and spillway that is at the end of the lake now.

The Bears--this is the first of five bears that we met! We saw 5 black bears (but some were cinnamon and scraggly looking). Even though a Grizzly is on CA's state flag, they have not seen any there since 1922! The mom and cubs we saw in Sequoia National Park will be in another post. Still, the Black Bear in these shots was HUGE...the largest one we've seen to date! I thought that you might think the bear board found when you register in the campground (how comforting!) interesting. I thought that you might think the bear board found when you register in the campground (how comforting!) interesting. The park keeps track of bear encounters and the monetary damage they cause. They also put up signs on the road where a bear has been recently hit by a vehicle. Unfortunately, one appeared while we were visiting. They have pictures posted all over the park offices/visiting centers of where bears have literally torn through the door frames and windows of cars in one swipe. There was only one night that I did not pay the 20 bucks to sleep in an official campground where I could lock my food up in a bear box. In another post, I will talk more about bear boxes and "campgrounds". Now, keep in mind that b/c all of the snow the park really just "opened" recently to the public!