Hetch Hetchy Valley is a glacial valley in the northwest corner of Yosemite National Park in California. It is currently completely flooded by O'Shaughnessy Dam, forming the Hetch Hetchy Reservoir. The Tuolumne River fills the reservoir. Upstream from the valley lies the Grand Canyon of the Tuolumne. The reservoir supplies the Hetch Hetchy Aqueduct. The damming of the valley in the 1920s, and the creation of a reservoir, were at the time, and since, a major environmental controversy in the Western United States.
The Hetch Hetchy Road drops into the valley at the O'Shaughnessy Dam, but all points east of there are roadless, and accessible only to hikers and equestrians. Wapama Falls 1,700 feet (520 m) and Tueeulala Falls 840 feet (260 m), both among the tallest waterfalls in North America, are both located in Hetch Hetchy Valley.
Read more about Hetch Hetchy Valley: History, Geology, Proposed Restoration
Famous quotes containing the word valley:
“Ah! I have penetrated to those meadows on the morning of many a first spring day, jumping from hummock to hummock, from willow root to willow root, when the wild river valley and the woods were bathed in so pure and bright a light as would have waked the dead, if they had been slumbering in their graves, as some suppose. There needs no stronger proof of immortality. All things must live in such a light. O Death, where was thy sting? O Grave, where was thy victory, then?”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)