Hetch Hetchy

Hetch Hetchy is the name of a valley, a reservoir and a water system in California in the United States. The glacial Hetch Hetchy Valley lies in the northwestern part of Yosemite National Park and is drained by the Tuolumne River. For thousands of years before the arrival of Europeans in the 1850s, the valley was inhabited by Native Americans who practiced subsistence hunting-gathering. During the late 19th century, the valley was renowned for its natural beauty – often compared to that of Yosemite Valley – but also targeted for the development of water supply for irrigation and municipal interests.In 1923, the O'Shaughnessy Dam was completed on the Tuolumne River, flooding the entire valley under the Hetch Hetchy Reservoir. The dam and reservoir are the centerpiece of the Hetch Hetchy Project, which in 1934 began to deliver water 167mi west to San Francisco and its client municipalities in the greater San Francisco Bay Area.GeographyBefore damming, the high granite formations produced a valley with an average depth of 1800ft and a maximum depth of over 3000ft; the length of the valley was 3mi with a width ranging from an eighth to a half of a mile . The valley floor consisted of roughly 1200acre of meadows fringed by pine forest, through which meandered the Tuolumne River and numerous tributary streams. Kolana Rock, at 5772ft, is a massive rock spire on the south side of the Hetch Hetchy Valley. Hetch Hetchy Dome, at 6197ft, lies directly north of it. The locations of these two formations roughly correspond with those of Cathedral Rocks and El Capitan seen from Tunnel View in Yosemite Valley. A broad, low rocky outcrop situated between Kolana Rock and Hetch Hetchy Dome divided the former meadow in two distinct sections.