K didn't want to spend an hour driving to do another hike in Yosemite and so on the second day he looked at the map and told me we were going to Hetch Hetchy Reservoir.
Hetch Hetchy is also known as the second Yosemite due to it's beauty. After the big earthquake in San Francisco in 1906 where there were mass devastation including leaving them with no water, the people sought to look for a safe place to build a reservoir to get a steady water supply. After much debate (i.e. 7 year environmental struggle), Congress passed the Raker Act in 1913 which permitted the flooding of the valley under the conditions that power and water derived from the river to be utilised for public interests.
Today the Hetch Hetchy is the water source for San Francisco and the greater San Francisco Bay Area. Construction started in 1914 and finished in 1923. Standing on the dam looking down, it is a very impressive piece of work. I mean, with technology at that time, how on earth did they build something this huge?
The hike on the other side of the dam was relatively easy even though there are no paved footpaths. It's generally flat land so yay to no climbing for me. It was hot and sunny - we were seriously perspiring. I guess most people are at Yosemite National Park and so this place was a far cry from yesterday. There were only small groups of people and it's really quiet. Whenever we walked past the one or two hikers we would greet one another with a smile or a hi.
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| The impressive O'ShaughnessyDam We soon walked across the dam to start our hike |
Hetch Hetchy is also known as the second Yosemite due to it's beauty. After the big earthquake in San Francisco in 1906 where there were mass devastation including leaving them with no water, the people sought to look for a safe place to build a reservoir to get a steady water supply. After much debate (i.e. 7 year environmental struggle), Congress passed the Raker Act in 1913 which permitted the flooding of the valley under the conditions that power and water derived from the river to be utilised for public interests.
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| Just arrived to this view! |
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| The beautiful and peaceful reservoir |
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| Vertigo! Looking down the dam in front of us - that sheer vertical drop made our knees wobble. |
Today the Hetch Hetchy is the water source for San Francisco and the greater San Francisco Bay Area. Construction started in 1914 and finished in 1923. Standing on the dam looking down, it is a very impressive piece of work. I mean, with technology at that time, how on earth did they build something this huge?
Water from Hetch Hetchy is some of the cleanest municipal water in the U.S; San Francisco is one of out of six cities not required by law to filter its tap water. The whole area is very protected. We saw a few people working at the dam around doing maintenance work and swimming and boating are prohibited. It is indeed a very pure source of drinking water.
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| Read more here, and here |
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| Standing on the dam looking down. See the power of the water gushing out. The bottom part of the pic is the sheer drop of the dam |
The hike on the other side of the dam was relatively easy even though there are no paved footpaths. It's generally flat land so yay to no climbing for me. It was hot and sunny - we were seriously perspiring. I guess most people are at Yosemite National Park and so this place was a far cry from yesterday. There were only small groups of people and it's really quiet. Whenever we walked past the one or two hikers we would greet one another with a smile or a hi.
There are two waterfalls on the other side of the dam. We could only see one in the far distance; not sure if the other one has dried up due to the drought? We walked for probably 30min and we made a decision to turn back because we needed to find a lunch place and start our drive to San Francisco, another 4.5h away. Bearing in mind we were in the valley and would take us some time to get our of this place too.
And finally we were on to our last stop - San Francisco! Goodbye nature, hello city :)
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| Hot weather ah! |
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| Me pointing to the dam in the far distance. We walked this far! |
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| Resting |
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| Hike done. Goodbye Hetch Hetchy! |
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| Lesson learnt - leaving early to start our drive to San Francisco. And goodbye mountain roads! |
And finally we were on to our last stop - San Francisco! Goodbye nature, hello city :)
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