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 1908

Photo 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