Tamarack Falls

Tamarack Creek flows into Cascade Creek immediately adjacent to the upper portion of The Cascades, and can be found 2.8 miles east of the Arch Rock entrance station or 1.7 miles west of the junction with the Big Oak Flat Road, along Highway 140 in Yosemite National Park. The two places to see Tamarack Falls, however are a considerable distance apart - either from Highway 140, about a mile and a half west of the base of The Cascades, or along the Wawona Road where the road bends sharply around Elephant Dome and heads south from the valley.Tamarack Falls is a considerably less significant sister waterfall to the upper section of The Cascades. The falls are located about one-quarter of a mile upstream of the bridge over Tamarack Creek along the Big Oak Flat Road, but cannot be seen at all from the Big Oak Flat Road due to the shape of adjacent cliffs as well as the thick forest cover around. With a drop of about 90 feet, the falls are only about as significant as the falls visible on Cascade Creek upstream from the Big Oak Flat Road and pale in comparison to The Cascades downstream of the bridge. Given the smaller drainage Tamarack Creek will likely run dry by mid summer, if not considerably sooner. On our most recent survey in May 2013, a below average year for snow in the Sierra Nevada range, the creek was already running quite low and the falls appeared quite a bit less significant than we had hoped.