Waterwheel Falls - Grand Canyon of the Tuolomne River, Yosemite NP

8.5 miles of hiking • 500' elevation gain • 1 night

In the morning, we decided to hike to the famous Waterwheel Falls. After starting down the trail past Glen Aulin, the trail became more and more spectacular as we passed many large and unusual waterfalls and vistas. We decided to camp away from the busy backpackers camp, so we went back after a 1/2 mile of scouting for camps and packed up our stuff and moved down to an awesome shelf at a secluded bend that included views of the surrounding canyon and a waterfall of our very own. We worried that the wind would be an issue, so we set up camp in a more wooded location adjacent to the rock shelf and had lunch there. Renewed and relieved that we had found such a sweet camp, we set off again for Waterwheel Falls. While it was a cool once we finally reached it, we were more impressed by the fantastic and humbling power of California Falls along the way. Even unknown LeConte falls was jawdroppingly beautiful. The Sierras are so much different from the PacNW. The smooth white granite and sloping nature of the falls is a real contrast from the dark and sheer basalt rocks we have here. As Waterwheel Falls slopes hundreds of feet down, the huge cascade of water hits uneven lips on the stone and it flings the water up and away, creating an interesting effect. The huge drop off makes for an awesome vista at the top. You can see for miles down the huge canyon. We returned to camp for a beautiful sunset and a great end to one of the best days in the wilderness I can remember.