Today we went out to Hetch Hetchy, which is one of those names you say once and then can’t stop saying.

The plan was simple enough: hike the shoreline out to Wapama Falls, a 5-mile out-and-back on the north side of Yosemite. But nothing about this place is simple, once you know the story behind it.

Because here’s the thing about this reservoir: it wasn’t always water. After the 1906 earthquake leveled San Francisco, the city went to Congress asking for a reliable water source, and got it: the 1913 Raker Act. By 1923 the O’Shaughnessy Dam was finished, and the snowmelt did what snowmelt does. It filled the valley, slow and patient, until what had been a valley became this.

The trail starts at the dam. A few photos of it below. Nearby you’ve got Lake Eleanor, Cherry Lake, and a scattering of smaller alpine lakes tucked into the granite, the kind you’d only find if you already knew to look.

After the tunnel on the north side of the dam, the trail goes flat and dusty for a while, and the views just don’t quit. The whole reservoir stretched out below you, mountains standing around it like they’re keeping watch. To the south: Kolana Rock, the most iconic formation out here, rising over 2,000 feet above the water.

Muir wrote about it before the dam ever filled the valley, calling it “a noble rock… presenting a bold front of gray granite.” And in that bigger way he always wrote, he said no temple built by human hands could compare to Yosemite, that every rock in its walls seemed to glow with something alive. Hetch Hetchy Dome and Smith Peak round out the view, standing there like they’ve got nowhere else to be.

The trail changes character as you go. Dirt gives way to broken mountain rock, scattered and stacked into makeshift stairs. Somebody maintains this well. You can tell.

It was 76 degrees today, pleasant enough, though the sun has a way of making that number feel like a lie once you’re a mile in. But Wapama Falls pays you back for the walk. A cool breeze right at the end, and in May the snowmelt is really pouring through, more force and white water than any photo could hold. So I took video instead. You’ll see what I mean.

All in all, a beautiful trail. Yosemite is a magical place, and if you love the outdoors even a little, I hope you get out here at least once: the waterfronts, the mountains, the valley views, all of it. And you’re almost guaranteed some wildlife too. This time we got lucky and spotted a bobcat, right at the end, crossing the dam as we were finishing up.

O’Shaughnessy Dam