Some daydreaming about next year's hikes.
Those of you who have read my posts will recognize the theme of hiking the old abandoned roads and trails in the park. Chick-on's recent post about hiking up the old Glacier Point Road from Chinquapin towards Badge Pass reminded me that farther down the hill is an abandoned trail that used to cross Chinquapin Creek (which was re-named Indian Creek at least a hundred years ago) below Chinquapin and zigzaged down to Henness (which was the group of houses on the south side of the Merced directly opposite El Portal).
Those of you who know about the more obscure waterfalls in the park are familiar with Chinquapin Falls, which is visible during Spring runoff from the main highway in El Portal. Photos of it on the web all agree that the photo should be taken with a long lens from just east of El Portal. Here is one (link). It looks like this:
A guy on the climbers forum has posted a couple more photos of the thing. See link. Here are the thumbnails:
The guidebooks say that the falls is a couple of hundred feet high and you can't get closer because it's on the wrong side of the river. In 1907, the railroad's brochure described it this way:
Winding and curving, twisting and turning, ever climbing, we now reach the Hog's Back, a curve which almost completes the circle; then there is a sudden sweep to the right, and far up, 2000 feet above us on the face of the great cliff is a narrow, white band which shimmers in the light as you gaze. You are looking at the Chinquapin Falls, and the first part of your journey is over. For you have reached El Portal, the Gateway of Yosemite.
The old trail passed above the falls. Here is a bit of the 1909 USGS topo map:
You can see that I have underlined Chinquapin, at the intersection of the old Wawona Road and the old Glacier Point Road, which had two buildings at that time. I have put a "1" where the trail to Henness left the old road near Grouse Creek, a "2" at the location of the falls, and a "3" at Henness. Although the buildings there are gone, along with whatever river crossing existed, it must be possible to still get there, because the fishing sites talk about fishing in the side creeks there. I suppose that there must be a fisherman's use trail from where highway 140 now crosses the river a bit farther west. Of course, there was no road bridge crossing the river in 1909. Highway 140 wasn't built until 1926. The dotted line trail that you see going downriver from Henness goes back up the ridge and over to Hites Cove. There was no trail or road on the south side of the river at or west of Hites Cove at that time. The north side of the river had no road, either, but it had the railroad by then.
So one bushwhacking scheme would be to trace the old trail until the ridge just above and east of the falls, then follow the ridge down to where you might get a glimpse of the falls. To the west of that point, the trail gets amazingly steep, and I would be surprised if anything still exists. The biggest hiking problem is likely to be brush. The Arch Rock Fire and a few subsequent ones totally destroyed the old forest.
Questions for the forum:
1) Does anyone know anything about a fisherman's trail to Henness?
2)What is the dashed line shown on the modern map below? I have highlighted it with some red Xs. It starts at the fire road between Yosemite West to Pinoche Peak. Is it a fire break? It goes straight down the hill! You can find it here: link
If this thing were passable, it would let you contour over to the base of the falls at about the 3300 foot level....
It must be godawful steep.
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/24/2013 09:03AM by wherever.