Hetch Hetchy Reservoir
O'Shaugnessy DamAbout
The building of the O'Shaughnessy Dam within Yosemite NP was perhaps the nation's first great conservation battle. The city of San Francisco gets the water and the electricity, the park gets either an ugly water tank, or a quiet canyon with few visitors, depending on your perspective. Almost no one comes out here, and some people feel that the reservoir actually saved this canyon from the overdeveloped infrastructure of Yosemite Valley. There are still high granite walls, tremendous waterfalls and some fine hiking - truly an unknown sister to Yosemite Valley. Spring flowers are terrific. In the winter the road is closed at night and sometimes closed all day in snowy or icy conditions.
