Yosemite's Hetch Hetchy resevoir gets busy

After being kicked out of Yosemite Valley (see previous post on flooding), we stayed at a lodge just outside the northwest end of the park, and waited in a long line to get into the Hetch Hetchy entrance the next morning. Hetch Hetchy Valley has no gift shops, no snack bars, and no restaurants. It's a place to hike around the 8 mile long resevoir, the waters of which slake the thirst of 2.4 million Bay area residents. A dam was completed in 1923, despite strenuous objections by John Muir and his Sierra Club.

Yosemite Valley may surround you with sheer granite mountains like Half Dome and El Capitan, but at Hetch Hetchy with luck you'll view an intense rainbow rising from a manmade fall off O'Shaughnessy Dam, pictured above.

You can also enter a refreshingly cool cave on your way to Wapama Falls, as we did.

Several falls were in overdrive, and the runoff from Tueeulala Falls, which precedes Wampama Falls, was so great it overflowed the trail. Not to worry, we took off our hiking books and waded in. After some debate, we decided Steven's foot blister, Samuel's old tennis shoes, and timing issues, made turning around at Tueeulala Falls a good idea, but there are another half dozen trails to choose from next time we visit.

At Benjamin's request, we then tried a little off-roading.

Benjamin picked a forest service road just outside the park, but we discovered it was a little too rutted to handle without emergency gear. Here's a picture just before the 56-point turn needed to get back to the paved road.

From there we took a detour to historic Jamestown, hoping to do some panning for gold. That didn't pan out (sorry for that groaner joke there), but we did get to see the famous Jamestown jail, built in 1897 of brick with tiny barred windows and a low-walled privy in the center. It held goldminers who didn't behave. It was suitably uncomfortable inside, dank and dark.

We emerged into the sunlight and walked down the street to a popular hangout, The Service Station (which I highly recommend) for a hearty dinner.

Jamestown has been used for countless Western movies, beginning with The Virginian in 1929, and retains many of its old buildings from the late 19th century.