Rancheria Falls

Overview: Check out towering waterfalls and soaring granite cliffs without the crowds of Yosemite Valley. This route is suitable for a moderately long dayhike or an overnight backpacking trip, at its best (but most popular) in the spring.

Hetch Hetchy is the fraternal twin of Yosemite Valley, drowned in the early 20th century to provide drinking water for the San Francisco Bay Area. As a result, it's much less visited than Yosemite Valley, and you can even go backpacking here! The downside is that the trail network is not terribly huge, and Rancheria Falls is the easiest trail and the one that passes by all the waterfalls, so this trail gets almost all the visitors to the area: this is not a hike for solitude when the water is going.

There are three named waterfalls (Tueeulala, Wapama, and Rancheria Falls), and a cascade at Tiltill Creek, but during snowmelt season (roughly April - June) you can expect cascades of water everywhere, all pouring onto the trail and into the reservoir below.

The trailhead is on the south side of O'Shaughnessy Dam; there is limited parking here and a backpackers-only campsite. You start by crossing the dam and going through a tunnel bored through the granite wall of the valley; it then follows an old service road until the first trail junction. This section is wide and flat and suitable for just about anyone, even strollers, and stays this way for a mile until the first trail junction. At the junction, your trail continues along the valley wall, or you can head up-up-up towards either Miguel Meadows or Laurel Lake; from here the trail becomes more a hiking trail and less a road.

The trail undulates along the valley wall, first passing the cascade of Tueeulala Falls and then Wapama Falls -- the latter being quite a spectacle at full blast and well worth stopping and gawking. After Wapama Falls you go into the forest for a while, continuing the moderate up-and-down until the trail crosses the cascades of Tiltill Creek. From here there is a final climb to Rancheria Falls; there is a designated campground here and 3 sets of falls. Above Rancheria Falls the trails climb rapidly towards Tiltill Valley and towards LeConte Point and Rancheria Mountain.

From Rancheria Falls return the way you came.

Tips: The Hetch Hetchy gate for Yosemite is the main access point for this hike and maintains limited hours -- check to see what they are at the main Yosemite website. The turnoff is just before the Big Oak Flat entrance for Yosemite on CA Highway 120

The first mile or so (across the dam and to the first trail junction) is family-friendly in that it's wide and flat and easy BUT you are on the side of the valley wall about 50-100 feet above the reservoir; after the trail junction, while the hiking isn't hard, the trail is narrow and there are sheer drop-offs directly into the reservoir or onto rocks - not suitable for small or impulsive children.

There is a campground, for backpackers with valid permits only, $5/person/night.

ONLY backpackers (with valid permits) can be present in Hetch Hetchy after the gate closes, leave early if you're just day-tripping!

This hike should be gorgeous anytime but late April-early May should beat the summer heat and catch the waterfalls in full roar.The hike to Rancheria Falls is very popular at this time of year; expect to find  lots of day-hikers to Wapama Falls for the first 2.5 miles and quite a few people at the Rancheria Falls campsite. If you can, go midweek to avoid the crowds, or be willing to hike up the hill to get away from others.

At Rancheria Falls itself, don't just stop at the campsite: there are great views of the falls about 15 minutes up the trail at a footbridge over the creek.

Poison oak is plentiful, growing close to or directly on the trail.

Like everywhere in Yosemite, bears are active day and night and canisters are required if you're backpacking.

Post-hike, the Evergreen Lodge has a restaurant and postcards.