Guide to Yosemite: A handbook of the trails and roads of Yosemite valley and the adjacent regionHall, Ansel F. (Ansel Franklin)
History
Guide to Yosemite: A handbook of the trails and roads of Yosemite valley and the adjacent region
Hall, Ansel F. (Ansel Franklin)
Yosemite Valley (Calif.) -- Guidebooks
Most famous of all, the highest fall in Yosemite and in all the world,
is the ~Yosemite~. Its first sheer plunge of 1430 feet would set it
apart as the greatest of its kind, but by a series of six quick jumps
it descends another 800 feet to the brink of the final precipice, over
which it leaps gracefully 320 feet to the valley floor. Seen from
below, the 2600-foot drop often appears as one fall though in reality
the Upper Fall is fully one third of a mile back of the lower. In
winter a great ice cone, sometimes 500 feet high, forms beneath this
Upper Fall, and its collapse causes riotous ice-floods in early
spring. "Choolook," which in Yosemite dialect meant simply "the fall,"
has a most changing personality. In late summer and autumn he loses
much of his springtime power and obeys every whim of the ever-changing
winds. But the most delightful of all his moods may be seen during the
time of the full moon when the foot of the Lower Fall is veiled by the
delicate iridescence of lunar rainbows.
From the western edge of Panorama Cliff the lace-like ~Illilouette
Falls~ disappears into its box canyon east of Glacier Point. The filmy
character of its 370-foot foam-curtain is almost never appreciated
because of the lack of a proper view-point. The old Indian name
Too-tool-a-we-ack sought to reproduce the sound of gurgling and
falling water.
~Vernal~ and ~Nevada~ pour over the rims of two successive glacial
amphitheatres in the main canyon of the Merced. Both carry a great
volume of water and are much less variable than the mural falls.
~Vernal~, dropping 317 feet in a wide and unbroken sheet, has often
been pronounced the symmetrically perfect of all falls. Its foot is
always bathed in blowing mists which give rise to most exquisite
circular rainbows. Referring to the spray, the Yosemites called the
fall Yan-o-pah or "little water cloud."
~Nevada~, widely tossing out its spray-rockets, gives a vast
impression of power which is probably nowhere equaled except in the
Grand Canyon of the Tuolumne. In its descent of 594 feet it strikes a
projecting ledge, which caused the Indians to name it Yo-wy-we or
"twisting rock."
There is yet another great fall in the Yosemite region, but concerning
it little is known. It is so inaccessible in the mighty Tenaya Canyon
that it is even nameless, and no one has ever reached its base. Seen
from afar pouring over a rounded precipice in the canyon bottom it
appears to be between 600 and 1000 feet in height.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account