The Hetch Hetchy Valley Before the Dam
The Hetch Hetchy Valley Before the Dam"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 glow with
life, whether leaning back in repose or standing erect in
thoughtful attitudes giving welcome to storms and calms alike. John
Muir
Looking Up Hetch Hetchy Valley from Surprise Point 1908Photo by
Isaiah West Taber Hetch Hetchy Landscape GardenPhoto by Herbert W.
Gleason
Wapama or Hetch Hetchy Fall
"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 vertical though considerably inclined, and is dashed
into huge out bounding bosses of foam on the projecting knobs of
its jagged gorge." - John Muir
Kolana Rock in Hetch Hetchy Photo by Herbert W. Gleason
"The most strikingly picturesque rock in Hetch Hetchy Valley is
a majestic pyramid over 2,000 feet in height which is called by the
Indians 'Kolana.' It is the outermost of a group like the Cathedral
Rocks of Yosemite and occupies the same relative position on the
south wall." - John Muir
Hetch Hetchy from Southside Trail Photo by Herbert W.
Gleason
Giant Oaks in the Fern Gardens of Hetch-HetchyPhotos by J. N.
LeConte and F.M. Fultz, 1907.
Wapama Falls MeadowPhoto by Isaiah West Taber "From Rancheria
Mountain, in one morning, we dropped down six thousand feet to
Hetch Hetchy Valley, where we spent two days in luxurious idleness,
renewing acquaintance with its rocks, walls, cascades, trees, and
flowers -- old friends whom many of us had known, but had not seen
for years, and for whome we found time had not loosened our ties of
affection. As we left the valley early in the morning, each
breathed a silent prayer that this temple of the gods, with its
stupendous walls and magnificent falls, its picturesque oaks
sheltering innumerable birds that keep the air vibrant with their
joyous songs, its velvety meadows resplendent with ferns and
flowers, its limpid stream offering new charms at every bend in its
winding length, and Kolana Rock, the presiding deity of the valley,
brilliant in the rays of the rising sun, --- that this valley, with
its charms and inspirations, should not be transformed into an
unsightly storage reservoir to satisfied the yet unjustified demand
of a municipality at the irreparable expense of the nation. -
Robert W. Price
Hetch Hetchy Meadow at Foot of the Trail Photo by Joseph N. Le
Conte
Tuolumne River in the Upper Hetch Hetchy Valley Before the Dam
Photograph by J. N. LeConte
Fall in the Main Tuolumne River at the Head of Hetch Hetchy
Valley Photograph by J. N. LeConte
Kolana Rock from the Lower Hetch Hetchy Valley Photograph by J.
N. LeConte
View from the South Side of Hetch Hetchy Near the Lake Eleanor
Trail Photo by Herbert W. Gleason
Hetch Hetchy Today
Hetch Hetchy Today
Hetch Hetchy Today