South Fork Tuolumne Cascades

South Fork Tuolumne Cascades can be found alongside of the Tioga Pass Road (Highway 120) in Yosemite National Park, about eight miles east of Crane Flat and the junction with the Big Oak Flat Road. A pullout on the east side of the bridge allows for parking for those who wish to get out for pictures.The South Fork of the Tuolumne River harbors several noteworthy waterfalls, but this is the only one which can be seen with essentially no effort. As the Tioga Pass Road climbs up the western side of the Sierra, it crosses the South Fork at the base of this series of cascades which drop perhaps 70 feet or so. Topographic maps suggest that the falls may extend a lot further up the hillside, maybe to the point of having a total drop of close to 150 feet in all, but we have not been able to confirm this idea. Below the road are additional smaller cascades, though none of which are formed by significant outcrops of bedrock and thus are not considered to be functionally part of this waterfall. Though the South Fork of the Tuolumne River should be a perennial stream even at this point along its course, the drainage area is small and after the winter snow pack has melted the volume of water present in the river will drop considerably. In drought years the river very well may run dry during the late summer months, but this is not likely to be a common occurrence.We opted to refer to this one as "Cascades" because it fits the nature of the falls, and also to differentiate it from the much more significant waterfall we refer to as South Fork Tuolumne Falls, located further west toward Groveland.