Re: Pywiack Cascade

We were up on the Half Dome trail on May 19, which was toward the end of the long hot spell, so rivers were raging. I noticed a large sloping waterfall down Tenaya Canyon that I'd never seen before, and shot a couple of telephoto shots of it. Being in a mostly inaccessible part of Tenaya Canyon (at least when the water is running), this "from a distance" shot may be the only way to see it like this:
http://www.pbase.com/roberthouse/image/97758181/original

If you look closely, you can see a few trees nearby to give you some perspective of how huge this cascade is (shot from 2 miles away); it also shows why Tenaya Canyon is considered so inaccessible and dangerous, if you look at the surrounding area. People get lost, trapped, injured, or caught in flash floods hiking that canyon, and the riverbed is the only real trail through much of it, so if the river is full your choices are limited.

Anyway, the Pywiack Cascade (coming down in the area past Cloud's Rest/ Mt. Watkins) was new and interesting to me, so I thought I'd pass the photo along.

The rest of that album shows some of of the rivers and falls as they were during that hot spell...huge and impressive; but apparently they have subsided a lot with the cooler weather.
http://www.pbase.com/roberthouse/river

---

Gary
Yosemite Photo Galleries: http://www.pbase.com/roberthouse/yo

do you think that attempting the entire JMT during the month of June is too early in the season?

nice pic . i've been to the top of that cascade . you can "safely" cross-country to it from the tenaya lake area .

An up close direct view is easily reached by following the small stream due south of Olmsted Point and then above where it drops off into the canyon, traversing west onto a knob overlooking the canyon. In fact that is an excellent viewpoint looking all the way down Tenaya Canyon, viewing the profile of Mount Watson, and seeing the Clouds Rest wall. Some nice sierra junipers about that zone. Of course this is the best time of year to do so given snowmelt. Considering the large numbers of people stopping at the road pull out, its surprising how few people ever bother to hike either down this small hanging valley or the long glacial rib just east. The vast majority of people simply tend to be afraid of wandering off in trailess areas even if they have a map unless they can clearly see everywhere they are going. That is why many do climb up on the modest dome above the road.



Post Edited (05-29-08 09:44)

---

http://www.davidsenesac.com