The best moderate spring hike if you want a thunderous roar at your turn around point?

You’d be hard pressed to top Wampa Falls in the Hetch Hetchy section of Yosemite Valley.

It’s a 5 mile moderate round-trip with roughly 200 feet in net elevation gain.

The three hour or so round trip excursion to Wampa Falls is an amazing experience. 

A series of five short bridges take you across the falls thundering down from the rim literally yards away.

On the south side of the bridges you’ll see the 50 or so feet before the water hits the lake.

The final 400 feet of the falls was buried under 400 feet of water when the Hetch Hetchy Reservoir filled.

That pales in comparison to the view in the north side of the bridges.

Some 1,400 feet above as you look up from the bridges is the top of the falls.

If you go in the coming month or so you may end up taking a shower with your clothes on so take rain jackets.

This hike has a lot of other bonuses. First,  you start out walking across a 430-foot high dam and then through a tunnel bored during the construction of the dam. 

Then there are the unparalleled views from the trail where the lake never leaves your view with the granite walls of the southern rim of the valley soaring above it. 

And if you time it right, April and May will provide a kaleidoscope of spring wildflowers.

It also attracts only a small fraction of the visitors that Yosemite Valley does.

Old photos show that John Muir was correct when he said the beauty of Hetch Hetchy Valley in the Tuolumne River paralleled that of Yosemite Valley on the Merced River.

Even inundated behind O’Shaughnessy Dam for the benefit of the City of San Francisco, the soaring granite above the waterline (remove the word still) impresses.

To reach the starting point for the hike at the top of the dam you take Evergreen Road,  the last left-hand turn from Highway 120 before reaching the park entrance.

You eventually will go through a park entrance station where there is a $35 per vehicle entrance fee.

You need to note the entrance and exit point is open only from sunrise to sunset. After that, you are locked in until morning.

I used to shun Hetch Hetchy thinking for some reason it wouldn’t live up to its hype plus the fact it wasn’t a peak hike.

That changed 14  years ago. 

It took just one hike and I was hooked.

Last spring, I made my eighth hiking trip there.

I’ve taken the hike to Wampa Falls in the spring, summer, fall, and winter. 

Located just below the 4,000-foot elevation mark, Hetch Hetchy offers a different vibe as the seasons change.

That is part of the reason why it is my “go to hike” if I want to get a novice hooked on the joy of hiking in the Sierra. The lack of crowds, the spectator scenery, and the moderate trail figure in as well.

And perhaps the best part, it is do-able as a day trip given it is just a little over two hours away from most of the Northern San Joaquin Valley.

While weekends at the right time you may find few people on the trail to Wampa Falls, mid-week will find few hikers.

And if you can’t resist a Yosemite Valley fix you’re 45 minutes away from the valley floor, a two-day trip staying in the Hetch Hetchy area at Evergreen Lodge works well.

You can tackle Hetch Hetchy on the first day and then you get up bright and early the second day to  beat the crowds to the popular trail heads in Yosemite Valley.