The following six-mile drive to Mather is entirely thru delightful woods and meadows—a country quite attractive but with no startling scenic effects. At Mather is the Hog Ranch Ranger Station, which is connected by telephone with Yosemite and outside points. Here we again enter Yosemite National Park.
In the nine-mile rail-motor excursion to Hetch Hetchy we first traverse a dense pine forest for one mile and then, emerging at the rim of Tuolumne Canyon, have a wonderfully scenic ride to our destination.
Hetch Hetchy is a deeply sculptured Yosemite-like valley with the broad meadows of its level floor flanked by dominating castellated cliffs. Its most impressive feature is Kolana Rock, a massive promontory buttressing the precipitous south wall. The two great waterfalls—Tueeulala, the spirit of gracefulness, and Wapama, the very soul of power—tumble over the north ramparts at the upper end of the valley. Fortunate, indeed, will be the visitors of the next few seasons, for the great gorge will be as yet unflooded.
ROAD TRIP VI
YOSEMITE TO EL PORTAL via EL CAPITAN ROAD
(15 miles—1½ hours by stage)
The final hour in Yosemite National Park—that generally spent in the ride from the valley to El Portal—is one of interest, but it must be admitted, of anti-climax. Facing westward we lose the wonderful views which burst upon us in entering, but the trip, for all of that, is attractive. From Yosemite Village either the Bridalveil or the El Capitan Road may be followed. The former is the more scenic and is described as Road Trip VI-A. The latter is set forth in the following text.
Crossing Sentinel Bridge our poplar-bordered road bears northward across a wide meadow from which are magnificent views of Yosemite Falls and the Lost Arrow straight ahead, and North Dome, Royal Arches and Half Dome to the right. At the Grizzly Hotel site a road forks eastward to Mirror Lake (Road Trip II). Turning westward beneath the giant black oaks of the meadow border, we soon pass the old Hutchings Orchard. The memorial bench at the left marks the spot from which Galen Clarke so loved to contemplate the beauty of "Cholook," the fall of falls. A little further are the wild azalia gardens of Yosemite Creek. Just west of the rustic bridge a short branch road turns to the right to the foot of Yosemite Falls. We continue straight ahead, passing Yosemite Hospital at the right and then running beneath the arcade of Yosemite Lodge. Just across the road is the swimming tank, the tennis courts, laundry, etc. The main buildings occupy the site of Koom-i´-ne, the largest and most important of the old Indian villages.
Bearing southward, we now round the base of Three Brothers, the Waw-haw´-kee or "falling rocks" of the Indians. At the foot of the great buttress is Rocky Point. The Yosemite tribes called the place We-äck (the rocks) because, according to their traditions, the huge boulders in the vicinity fell upon their trail. It is among these boulders that Tenaya's three sons were captured in 1852, and the colossal monument above was named for them.