Saddle trips on horses and mules are available, starting from Wawona Stable (behind the Pioneer History Center), run by the park’s concessionaire. The only way to get to the falls is via an 8.2-mile round-trip hike beside Chilnualna Creek that ends at the very top of the falls. But that doesn’t make it any less beautiful to see. It twists and turns behind rocks and tall conifer trees, always keeping part of itself hidden. Outside of Wawona, in the southern section of the park, Chilnualna Falls (2,200 feet high) is like a Zen rock garden: no matter where you stand, you can’t see the entire waterfall from any single vantage point. Chilnualna Fall Chilnualna Fall in Yosemite Deposit Photos You can hike to the base of the falls (it’s a five-mile round trip), and keep going even further into the backcountry to visit Rancheria Falls, a petite series of river cascades, which are a fairly strenuous 13.5-mile round trip from the same trailhead. Wapama Falls typically peak in May, but flow year-round. You can observe Wapama Falls rushing down the cliffs while standing atop O’Shaughnessy Dam, which controversially flooded the valley in 1923 to form a reservoir that supplies water and electricity to the San Francisco Bay Area. In the northwestern corner of the park, Hetch Hetchy Reservoir is the place to catch sight of Wapama Falls (1,400 feet high), a triple cascade like more famous Yosemite Falls. Wapama and Rancheria Falls At the base of Wapama Falls. Unlike the valley’s more famous waterfalls, this one can only be seen by hiking two miles down the Panorama Trail from Glacier Point, a beautiful, often uncrowded walk through bear country. This fall flows year-round, but peaks in May. What most first-time visitors don’t know is that another whooshing cascade, Illilouette Fall (370 feet high), tumbles over granite rocks nearby as it slides down toward the valley floor. Here are a few favorite waterfalls outside the Yosemite Valley around the national park: Illilouette Fall Illilouette Fall and Illilouette Gorge viewed from the Panorama Trail Walter Siegmund via Wikimedia CommonsĪ short drive from Yosemite Valley, Glacier Point provides a spectacular overview of the valley’s Nevada and Vernal Falls. Nearby national parks and forest lands also boast waterfalls during late spring and early summer, especially in the backcountry of Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks and over in the eastern Sierra Nevada. If you’re looking for solitude, there are many more hidden waterfalls throughout the park, which are nearly as beautiful as their valley sisters. But you probably won’t have those waterfall views all to yourself, especially not during the peak water flow in May. The Yosemite Valley has the greatest concentration of waterfalls in the park.
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