A good oiled mountain road makes the scenic Hetch Hetchy Valley a short, 2-hour drive by car from Yosemite Valley, a distance of 38 miles each way over the Big Oak Flat Road. This road is a 1-way control road for the first 4 miles after it leaves the Valley near El Capitan. This one-way section is a road of rare charm and beauty with superb views over the Valley. It passes through fine stands of Sugar Pine and Red Fir and the Tuolumne Grove of Big Trees. The road continues on through one of the finest stands of sugar pine left in the world.
A fine paved road extends from Mather down to the Hetch Hetchy Dam, a distance of 9 miles, where one may see San Francisco’s gigantic 300-foot Hetch Hetchy Dam and water supply. The valley is similar to Yosemite, with tumbling waterfalls and precipitous cliffs surrounding a lake 7 miles long. The San Francisco Recreation Camp is located at Mather, near the park line.
Men are dwarfed among the giant columns of the Mariposa Grove of Big Trees.
Visitors using the Big Oak Flat Road are urged to see the wonderful panorama of the High Sierra from the fire look-out tower, 1½ miles over an oiled road just west of Crane Flat. The fire guard on duty will be glad to explain the points of interest and show visitors how fires are located and put under control.
TUOLUMNE MEADOWS
John Muir, in describing the upper Tuolumne region, writes:
It is the heart of the High Sierra, 8,500 to 9,000 feet above the level of the sea. The gray picturesque Cathedral Range bounds it on the south; a similar range or spur, the highest peak of which is Mount Conness, on the north; the noble Mounts Dana, Gibbs, Mammoth, Lyell, Maclure, and others on the axis of the range on the east; a heavy billowy crowd of glacier-polished rocks and Mount Hoffmann on the west. Down through the open sunny meadow levels of the Valley flows the Tuolumne River, fresh and cool from its many glacial fountains, the highest of which are the glaciers that lie on the north side of Mount Lyell and Mount Maclure.
A store, gas station, garage, post office, camp ground, High Sierra Camp, and Tuolumne Meadows Lodge make the Meadows an ideal high-mountain camping place and starting point for fishing, hiking, and mountain-climbing trips. Tuolumne Meadows is 67 miles or about a 4-hour drive over the Big Oak Flat and Tioga Roads from Yosemite Valley. Saddle horses are available, and many fine trips may be made to Waterwheel Falls, Mount Lyell, Mount Conness, Glen Aulin, Muir Gorge, and hundreds of good fishing lakes and streams. Stage service to Tuolumne Meadows, Tioga Pass, Mono Lake, and Lake Tahoe is maintained daily throughout the summer months.
