We visit my favorite place on earth after spending the previous day exploring the Mother Lode. Mr. Borneman suggested that we take the "back route" to Yosemite, heading east on Hwy 108 - the Sonora Pass - rather than the shorter, less scenic route via Hwy 120.
Glad we did! Even thought this is definitely the long way...it is by far the road less traveled and one of spectacular beauty!
I believe we saw but a half dozen cars on our trip over the Sonora Pass. I'm not much of a fan of dense traffic, so this suited me quite nicely. As Mr. Borneman pointed out, the Sonora Pass route is definitely scenic. Incredible vistas. Many a hairpin turn as you climb to the summit at 9643'. The 15% grades and spectacular drop-offs made Terry squirm in the passengers seat as I twisted and turned our way thru the mountains.
At its easternmost junction, you turn south on Hwy 395 and proceed toward Lee Vining. Along the way, you will pass thru the quaint town of Bridgeport. This is a most excellent place to pick up a loaf of Sheepherders Bread and some meats and cheeses at one of the Basque markets. Good stuff!
Once we reached Lee Vining, I decided to fill up with gas before heading up the Tioga Pass. Bad decision! Regular at the Lee Vining Chevron was $3.99/gallon. In Yosemite...it was going for $3.65. Who would have thought that gas in the Park would be cheaper than that in the city?
The clouds are building as we make our accent up Tioga Pass and on to The Yosemite! Jimmy was right....for beauty, the Sonora Pass wins over Tioga hands down!
Yosemite is a massive granite cathedral adorned with sparkling streams, lakes, meadows and forests green. Its colossal cliffs beckon people from all over the world daring them to a climb. In 1868, the local Yosemite guidebook claimed that "The summit of Half Dome will never be trodden by human foot." Do I smell "challenge"? Since that declaration, hundreds of thousands of human feet...(including Terry's, Charlie's, Tosha's and mine) have trodden atop the Dome!
In fact...so many people want to trodden their feet up there, that Yosemite is now requiring a permit to climb Half Dome on Friday, Saturday, Sunday or Federal Holidays. And by the way, all permits for this year have been exhausted. And should you choose to climb it on a day when a permit is not required...you'd better make for the Dome in the wee hours of the morning lest you encounter a mob scene at the foot of the cable climb. I'm talking about hitting the trail dust by 4am at the latest!
This one's for you Tosh! Another picture of my favorite rock as viewed from Olmsted Point. Quite a different perspective of the Park's main hunk of granite. You can almost see the steady stream of "ants" climbing up the cables from this view!
The reservoir...Wapama Falls and the granite walls of the Hetch Hetchy Valley. In the spring, two of North America's tallest waterfalls, the Tueeulala and the Wapama, plummet spectacularly over thousand foot granite cliffs.
John Muir claimed this Valley to be "a wonderfully exact counterpart of the great Yosemite."
Hetch Hetchy Dam was approved by Congress in 1913 with the passing of the highly controversial Raker Act and signed into law by president Woodrow Wilson. Controversial because Hetch Hetchy lay within the bounds of Yosemite National Park and thus was supposedly protected from development.
For many years, San Franciscans had their eyes on damming the Hetch Hetchy but failed to convince government to act. However, the devastating San Francisco earthquake and fires of 1906 ignited the fuses of progress. With the Raker Act now intact, construction of the Dam began in 1914 under the direction of Chief Engineer Michael O'Shaughnessy. Twenty years later, the residents of San Francisco began receiving water and power from this engineering marvel.
The backbone of the project wasn't the dam itself...but the 68-mile railway that was constructed along the Toulomne River to transport workers, machinery and materials to the dam site. Once the Hetch Hetchy Railway was completed, the construction of the Dam took but a mere 3 1/2 years to complete. Considering the technology of the era...an incredible feat!
Standing on the O'Shaughnessy Dam I felt a genuine sense wonder at how clever we human beings are at manipulating our environment. Just the thought of how to construct a dam is daunting enough to fog ones brain. And to do it in 3 1/2 years? Incredible! And yet I wondered if it was necessary to build the dam here in Yosemite. Was there no other area downstream and outside the Park suitable for a dam project? What about the site of the New Don Pedro Dam? Like the O'Shaughnessy, the Don Pedro is on the Tuolomne River. It is outside of the Park's boundaries. It holds 2 million acre feet of water and is California's 6th largest body of water...which should have been adequate to supply the Bay Area with its needs. Why wasn't this area considered? Ahhh...questions that bother me so!
The road leading to the O'Shaughnessy Dam ends at the Dam. To get deeper into the wilds, one must either hoof it or find beasts of burden to assist with the Trek. The locals have llamas to help carry the heavy stuff!
Hey wait a minute! My Dawg Charlie isn't allowed on the trails...but these ugly beasts are? What's up with that? And do these hikers carry "Llama Poo Papers" and pick up after them like I do my dog? Oh quit your whining Binky and just go take a hike!
I have heard the stories and read the history regarding the battles between John Muir and the preservationists and those who argued for progress. But outside of photographs, I had never seen Hetch Hetchy first hand. I wanted to see what all the fuss was about. It is quite a lovely view gazing east from atop the Dam. And much to my wonderment what would this Valley look like without its 200 foot blanket of water?
In its natural state, the Hetch Hetchy was once a lovely glacially carved valley housing the Tuolomne River and its flora and fauna. Muir believed the Hetch Hetchy to be even more majestic than the Yosemite Valley. To dam her would be to damn him....and shortly after the
Raker Bill passed...so did Mr. Muir.
So how did these huge hunks of granite come to be? Legend has it that an Indian woman and her cantankerous husband began to argue and fight to such a degree that the Great Spirits put a stop to their bickering by turning them into North Dome and Half Dome...forever to have to face each other!
And not the last...as we shall once again in the not-so-distant future climb this glorious granite slab. You up for it Tosh and Charlie? Terry says she's in. Anybody else out there want to scale the Dome with me? Let's plan on climbing the Dome in the Summer of 2011. What say?
Next Up: Trek #18 will take us to the Grand Canyon for our "rim-to-rim" hike on August 19th. To prepare ourselves for this most strenuous and infernally hot hike, Terry and I are doing a series of 9+ mile "survival training hikes" on South Mountain...a regional Park located about 5 minutes from our home.
In addition, I'm re-reading Chapter 2 of the book: Over the edge -Death in the Grand Canyon. This chapter is about all of the people who have died in the Canyon when they chose to hike it in the middle of summer! Probably not the most inspirational of reads...however, it has given me a great perspective as to what is needed to not only survive but to enjoy this arduous Trek!
Until the next post...happy trails my friends.
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