Wapama Falls and
Rancheria Falls Camp
TRAIL USE
Day Hike, Backpack, Horse, Run
LENGTH
12.8 miles, 6–10 hours (over 1–2 days)
VERTICAL FEET
One-way:
+2,040', –1,190'
Round-trip: ±3,230'
DIFFICULTY
TRAIL TYPE
Out-and-Back
FEATURES
Canyon
Lake
Stream
Waterfall
Wildflowers
Great Views
Camping
Granite Slabs
Geological Interest
FACILITIES
Bear Boxes
Campground
Restrooms
Water
A stately grove of pines and incense cedars harboring a spacious camping area near Rancheria Falls marks the terminus of this hike. Its cascades and pools are the goals for some, but also rewarding are inspirational vistas of the awesome cliffs and two waterfalls, Tueeulala and Wapama, seen along the undulating path on the north wall of Hetch Hetchy Reservoir. Because you are traversing above a reservoir, you might think that this is an easy hike, but you face gains and losses of hundreds of feet as the trail traverses along ledges in steep granite slabs rising above the water. The route, being quite open and at a relatively low elevation, can be quite sunny and hot, so on a summer’s day it is best begun in early morning. On some late-fall and winter days you will share the path with many California newts on their annual migration.
Permits
Overnight visitors require a wilderness permit for the Rancheria Falls Trailhead, issued by Yosemite National Park. Pick up your permit at the Hetch Hetchy Entrance Station.
Maps
This trail is covered by the Tom Harrison Hetch Hetchy map (1:63,360 scale), the National Geographic Trails Illustrated #307 Yosemite NW map (1:40,000 scale), and the USGS 7.5-minute series Lake Eleanor and Hetch Hetchy Reservoir maps (1:24,000 scale).
The road to the Hetch Hetchy Trailhead is usually open by April (or earlier), but if you are after the two waterfalls and the wildflowers, May and June are best. After June, Tueeulala Falls quickly fades into oblivion, though Wapama Falls remains impressive through about mid-July, gradually diminishes through the summer months, but persists throughout the hiking season. The Rancheria Falls camping area is well used May–October, with different months deemed perfect based on your preferences: April–June for wildflowers; July–August for swimming, because Rancheria Creek’s pools are usually safe to enter by then; and September–November for cooler temperatures, solitude, and the yellow-orange hues of autumn.
Before the O’Shaughnessy Dam was completed in 1923, the Hetch Hetchy Valley was said to rival Yosemite Valley in beauty.
Finding the Trail
Driving east along CA 120 (Tioga Road), you turn left onto Evergreen Road, located just 0.6 mile west of Yosemite National Park’s boundary at the Big Oak Flat Entrance Station. Drive 7.4 miles north on Evergreen Road to its junction with Hetch Hetchy Road, an intersection located right in the middle of the small community of Mather. Turn right, drive beneath an archway, and continue 1.3 miles to the Hetch Hetchy Entrance Station/Mather Ranger Station.
A rainbow is formed by the spray of Wapama Falls as it tumbles into Hetch Hetchy Reservoir.
Road use is restricted near O’Shaughnessy Dam. In midsummer the road is open 7 a.m.–8 p.m., but open hours decrease with dwindling daylight hours. The current hours are posted where you turn onto Evergreen Road or on the Yosemite National Park website; just search for “Hetch Hetchy open hours.” At the entrance, your license plate is registered and you are given a placard to display on your dash.
Once past this bottleneck, drive 7.1 miles to a junction branching left for the Hetch Hetchy Backpackers’ Campground. Backpackers turn here, park in the obvious parking area by the road’s start, then walk 0.45 mile on the road to O’Shaughnessy Dam. Day hikers continue driving 0.7 mile past the junction to the dam, just beyond which is the trailhead parking. If you are just day hiking and want to stay in a relatively nearby campground, the Dimond O Campground is along Evergreen Road, and Hodgdon Meadow Campground is along CA 120 just inside Yosemite. Backpackers can stay at the trailhead backpackers’ campground for a night before and/or after their trip. There are toilets and water faucets at the backpackers’ parking area or, for day hikers, in a pullout on the right, just before you reach the reservoir’s shore.
Backpackers, who start from the overnight parking area, will add 0.9 mile to their round-trip distance. Summer hikers should start early in the morning because the walk around the reservoir is in the full sun and temperatures can reach into the 90s by noon. Carry sufficient water; the only reliable—and accessible—water sources are Falls Creek (at Wapama Falls) and then Rancheria Creek. Tiltill Creek flows but is cumbersome to reach because the trail crosses the creek on a bridge above a steep gorge.
You begin by starting across the top of O’Shaughnessy Dam (3,814') at Hetch Hetchy Reservoir. ▶1 On the south wall, the prow of Kolana Rock soars 2,000 feet above the reservoir, while to its north, tiered Hetch Hetchy Dome rises yet 400 feet higher. In a shaded cleft on the dome’s west flank, two-stepped Wapama Falls plunges an aggregate of 1,400 feet. In early summer its gossamer companion, Tueeulala Falls, spills 880 feet over the lip slightly farther west.
Across the 600-foot-long dam, you enter a 500-foot-long tunnel blasted through solid granite when the original dam was raised 85 feet in 1938. Emerging from this bat haven, the formerly paved road traverses just above the rocky west shore of Hetch Hetchy Reservoir. Along much of this length a pleasant grove of Douglas-fir, gray pine, big-leaf maple, and bay trees shade your progress, though in places the trees were burned in the 2013 Rim Fire. Soon you reach a junction where the trail to Laurel Lake (Trail 24), following the old road, continues straight ahead (1.0 mile), ▶2 while you turn to the right on a broad granite shelf.
On it you descend gently, first south and then east, across an exfoliating granitic nose, then switchback once down to a broad, sloping ledge, sparingly shaded by the grayish-green foliage of gray pines. From April to June it is often decorated with an assortment of wildflowers in bloom because the granite slabs are quite impervious and the water pools atop them, creating miniature vernal wetlands and moist soils. Species you might see by the hundreds include centaury, clarkias, and monkeyflowers, while other gems like the butterfly mariposa lily and harvest brodiaea occur in smaller clusters. By midsummer it is parched and yellow. You follow this ledge 0.5 mile to a minor stream that descends, until about early summer, as informally named Hetch Hetchy Falls (and incorrectly marked as Tueeulala Falls on many maps). Beyond it you wind down along the north shore of Hetch Hetchy Reservoir to a bridge over a steep, generally dry cleft, where your views east to the lake’s head expand impressively. Opposite you towers Kolana Rock, which forces a constriction in the 8-mile-long reservoir’s tadpole shape, while the prow of Hetch Hetchy Dome descends to lake level beyond Wapama Falls. Just past the bridge is a seasonally wet, bouldery crossing, the outflow from Tueeulala Falls, lying 0.2 mile east of where it is marked on most maps. It either spills forcefully down a near-vertical wall or is absent because it is created by an overflow channel from Falls Creek. While most of the volume of Falls Creek forms Wapama Falls, at the highest of flows, Falls Creek spills into a subsidiary channel that drops over the lip at Tueeulala Falls. As soon as Falls Creek’s volume decreases enough to stop spilling over, Tueeulala Falls instantly vanishes.
A few minutes of easy traverse east from here end at a steep, dynamited descent through a field of huge talus blocks under a tremendous precipice. Soon, if you’re passing this way in early summer, flecks of spray dampen your path, as you approach the first of several bridges below the base of Wapama Falls (2.35 miles). ▶3 During some high-runoff years, even these high, sturdy bridges are inundated by seasonally tumultuous Falls Creek and must be crossed very carefully, and on rare occasions the national park will close this route due to dangerous conditions.
Just east of Wapama Falls, the oak trees that have provided shade vanish as you cross a 300-foot-long near-barren field of talus; this was the site of a rockslide in spring 2014, when granite slabs broke loose from nearly 1,000 feet above your head on Hetch Hetchy Dome and pummeled the slope, breaking off nearly every tree. Reentering tree cover, you will now appreciate that the scattered moss-covered boulders on the slope are simply remnants of long-ago rockfalls. Your rocky path leads up around the base of a steep bulge of glacier-polished and striated granite, still under a fly-infested canopy of canyon live oak, bay tree, poison oak, and wild grapevines. After your terrace tapers off, the frequently dynamited trail leaves forest cover and undulates along a steep hillside in open chaparral of yerba santa and mountain mahogany, switchbacking on occasion to circumvent some cliffy spots. The longest descent occurs where the main shelf peters out and you descend to a lower one (4.15 miles). ▶4 Eventually your path descends to the shaded gorge cut by Tiltill Creek, and you cross two bridges, the second one high above the creek (5.15 miles). ▶5 You can get water just above this bridge by making a cautious traverse over to a pool at the brink of the creek’s fall. When the current is not too strong, the pool is great to dip in on a hot day; however, at strong flows it is best to wait until Rancheria Creek to refill your water.
Beyond the creek your route climbs the gorge’s east slope via a set of tight switchbacks to emerge 250 feet higher on a gentle hillside. Where this ascent eases off, you may see, on your right, the start of an old trail that follows a descending ridge just south of Tiltill Creek, ending just above Hetch Hetchy Reservoir.
Soon you spy Rancheria Creek, and by walking a few paces right, you have an excellent vantage point of it. The creek here slides invitingly over broad rock slabs, its pools superb for skinny-dipping when the creek isn’t swift. Every step of your way has been on granite, but just 0.2 mile past this vantage point you may note a tiny remnant of a once much larger volcanic deposit that was transported to this spot in a south-directed eruption of latite tuff about 9.5 million years ago. Just 0.1 mile past the volcanic remnant you reach a junction with a short trail to the spacious Rancheria Falls Camp (5.95 miles). ▶6
Once you have dropped your packs—and stored your food securely in your bear canister (this popular camping area is often visited by black bears)—I suggest you walk a stretch along Rancheria Creek. You may choose to simply walk to the river’s shore near the camp and head up and down it in pursuit of cascades and pools. One nearby cascade is a small fall, about 25 feet high, which in high volume shoots over a ledge of resistant, dark, intrusive rock. Alternatively you can continue a short distance up the main trail, first turning right at a junction, where left leads to Tiltill Valley and right to Rancheria Mountain (6.25 miles) ▶7 and soon thereafter reaching a bridge spanning Rancheria Creek (6.4 miles). ▶8 Watching the water plummet past here is mesmerizing and, at low flows, descending below the bridge yields additional swimming holes. Fishing along the creek might yield pan-size rainbow trout. After a lengthy break—or a good night’s sleep—return to the Hetch Hetchy Trailhead (12.8 miles). ▶9
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▶1 | 0.0 | Start at Hetch Hetchy Trailhead |
▶2 | 1.0 | Right at Laurel Lake–Rancheria Falls junction |
▶3 | 2.35 | Wapama Falls |
▶4 | 4.15 | Switchbacks down to lower shelf |
▶5 | 5.15 | Tiltill Creek bridge |
▶6 | 5.95 | Rancheria Falls camping area |
▶7 | 6.25 | Right at Tiltill Valley junction |
▶8 | 6.4 | Rancheria Creek bridge |
▶9 | 12.8 | Return to Hetch Hetchy Trailhead |
MILESTONES