Hetch Hetchy with Photos

Last weekend i drove up to Hetch Hetchy to hike and take photos. I drove up from Work on Friday, leaving work about noon. I was able to leave work early because both Wednesday and Thursday I stayed after for 4 hours to be available while we cut over our network to two new circuits. The drive up was a long one due to it being memorial weekend. I had planned to spend two nights sleeping in my car. I had build a foldable platform for my CX-5 and will use my backpacking pad and sleeping bag. Learned a couple of things from this experience. I need a thicker pad and the sleeping bag i have is too small. Also i need to make a couple of screens that i can put in the windows to promote airflow. Despite that i slept okay. Communication, however to my significant other was very poor. For my next trip i plan to get the Garmin InReach which would allow me to update her on my progress as well as send out an SOS if I have a problem. It’s a little expensive but making sure she can sleep while i am out is worth it. The hike from the dam to Wapama falls is about 2.5 miles one way. It is advertised as easy to moderate. I would say it’s easy for the first 1/4 mile then its more moderate to hard for another mile (at least for me being overweight and out of shape). Its 90% uphill for 1 mile with many steps and rough trail. Once you get to the falls be prepared to get a little wet. The falls are huge with a lot of overspray. And in the winter and spring months with heavy snow melt the bridge that crosses the falls can be extremely dangerous. This is a beautiful area, really should have been the second Yosemite. But even with the dam it is worth a trip. I plan to go back and really backpack here. I ended up only doing one night. I made the mistake of overthinking my camera gear and ended up carrying a pack at around 45lbs (95% camera gear). I won’t do that again. As a result i ended coming Home on Saturday afternoon. Stil i think it was a success. Below are the best pictures of the hike.