General View of Hetch'Hetchy Valley 



Photo by ■)". /•". h'iin:iaii 



So fine a fall might well seem suffi- 

 cient to glorify any valley; but here, as 

 in Yosemite, nature seems in no wise 

 moderate, for a short distance to the 

 eastward of Tueeulala booms and thun- 

 ders the great Hetch-Hetchy fall, Wa- 

 pama, so near that you have both of 

 them in full view from the same stand- 

 point. It is the counterpart of the 

 Yosemite Fall, but has a much greater 

 volume of water, is about 1,700 feet in 

 height, and appears to be nearly ver- 

 tical, though considerably inclined, and 

 is dashed into huge outbounding bosses 

 of foam on the projecting shelves and 

 knobs of its jagged gorge. No two 

 falls could be more unlike — Tueeulala 

 out in the open sunshine descending like 

 thistledown ; Wapama in a jagged shad- 

 owy gorge roaring and thundering, 

 pounding its way with the weight and 

 energy of an avalanche. Besides this 

 glorious pair, there is a broad, massive 

 fall on the main river a short distance 

 above the head of the valley. There 

 is also a chain of magnificent cascades 

 at the head of the valley on a stream 

 that comes in from the northeast, mostly 

 silvery plumes, like the one between the 



Vernal and Nevada falls of Yosemite, 

 half-sliding, half-leaping on bare 

 glacier-polished granite, covered with 

 crisfp, clashing spray into which the 

 sunbeams pour with glorious effect. 

 And besides all these, a few small 

 streams come over the walls here and 

 there, leaping from ledge to ledge with 

 birdlike song and watering many a hid- 

 den cliff-garden and fernery, but they 

 are too unshowy to be noticed in so 

 grand a place. 



The principal trees are the yellow 

 and sugar pines, Sabine pine, incense 

 cedar, Douglas spruce, silver fir, the 

 California and goldcup oaks. Balm of 

 Gilead poplar, XuttalTs flowering dog- 

 wood, alder, maple, laurel, tumion, etc. 

 The most abundant and influential are 

 the great yellow pines, the tallest over 

 200 feet in height, and the oaks with 

 massive, rugged trunks four to six or 

 seven feet in diameter, and broad, arch- 

 ing heads, assembled in magnificent 

 groves. The shrubs forming conspic- 

 uous flowery clumps and tangles are 

 manzanita, azalea, spirea, brier rose, 

 ceanothus, calycanthus, philadelphus, 

 wild cherry, etc. ; with abundance of 



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