Yosemite National Park, California

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.

Lambert Dome and Mount Dana are conspicuous landmarks of Tuolumne Meadows.

Fishing is usually very good in nearby lakes and streams. The Waterwheel Falls, Muir Gorge, the Soda Springs, the spectacular canyon scenery, jewel-like Tenaya Lake, and the Mount Lyell Glacier are a few of the interesting places to visit near Tuolumne Meadows.

John Muir writes this interesting description of the Grand Canyon of the Tuolumne and Waterwheel Falls:

It is the cascades or sloping falls on the main river that are the crowning glory of the canyon, and these, in volume, extent, and variety, surpass those of any other canyon in the Sierra. The most showy and interesting of them are mostly in the upper part of the canyon above the point of entrance of Cathedral Creek and Hoffmann Creek. For miles the river is one wild, exulting, onrushing mass of snowy purple bloom, spreading over glacial waves of granite without any definite channel, gliding in magnificent silver plumes, dashing and foaming through huge boulder dams, leaping high in the air in wheel-like whirls, displaying glorious enthusiasm, tossing from side to side, doubling, glinting, singing in exuberance of mountain energy.

Muir’s “wheel-like whirls” undoubtedly mean the celebrated Waterwheel Falls. Rushing down the canyon’s slanting granites under great headway, the river encounters shelves of rock projecting from its bottom. From these, enormous arcs of solid water are thrown high in the air. Some of the waterwheels rise 20 feet and span 50 feet in the arc. Unfortunately, the amount of water in the river drops with the advance of summer and the waterwheels lose much of their forcefulness. Visitors should see this spectacle during the period of high water from June 15 to August 1 in normal years.

The Waterwheel Falls may be reached by a good trail 5.5 miles from the Tioga Road down the Tuolumne River Gorge to the Glen Aulin High Sierra Camp, where meals and overnight accommodations are available, then 2.8 miles down the river to Waterwheel Falls. Saddle animals may be rented at Tuolumne Meadows for this trip.

Below the waterwheels the Tuolumne Canyon descends abruptly, the river plunging madly through the mile-deep gorge. Trails built a few years ago down the canyon from the Waterwheel Falls to Pate Valley penetrate the very heart of the gorge. The Muir Gorge, a vertical-walled cleft in the canyon a half mile deep, is, as a result, but 2 hours below Waterwheel Falls and the same above Pate Valley by the new trails. The entire canyon may be traversed with ease either on horseback or on foot.

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