Yosemite Falls thunders down the north side of Yosemite Valley.
As June becomes imminent, the state of the snowpack across California becomes clearer. June is often the month when flows in the rivers around the state level off after the spring thaw and begin the gradual dwindling into their autumn trickles. From the Kern to the Sacramento, this is definitely not the case in 2017. Snow remains abundant at higher elevations and the increasing temperatures ensure that it is melting at a steady clip. Nonetheless, there is still deep snow in the high country and it will take a significant amount of time for it to melt out. This means the rivers, creeks and waterfalls of Northern California will remain strong and vigorous for the duration of the summer.
Memorial weekend took me to Yosemite for a wedding. Though I did not have a lot of time and was limited in my opportunities to get out by my three young kids, we had an excellent time wandering the valley and checking out the magnificent waterfalls. All of the smaller, seasonal waterfalls were flowing strongly, heightening the beauty of the already incomparable valley. The main waterfalls were also swollen and awe-inspiring. While our pre-wedding visit to the valley was great and there were surprisingly few people in the park, our post wedding foray was an eye-opening immersion into just what the crowds can be like at the park. I have been going there frequently my entire life and never experienced such a thing. Even forewarned, it was still shocking. Thankfully Mount Shasta never gets that way.
Obviously, Yosemite is not the normal beat for HikeMtShasta, but, as I have established in the past, there is a strong link between the beloved national park and Mount Shasta through John Muir. Furthermore, water has been a central theme on this blog and there are few more poetic and beautiful ways to illustrate how deep the snowpack is than to display waterfalls in Yosemite.
Click to enlarge:
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- Royal Arches Cascade
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- Yosemite Falls
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- Sentinel Falls
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- Ribbon Falls
Since this is a Mount Shasta website, it certainly is fitting to include one shot of the great mountain. I captured this one a day before heading down to Yosemite. The fact that the falls are flowing at all indicates just how much snow there is to melt up here. High water indeed!
Hike Mt. Shasta 
Beautiful! What a spring for big water 🙂! Thank you for your pictures!
Lovely. I think with so many of the roads and trails in Yosemite still closed, the valley gets the brunt of the visitors. I can’t imagine what summer there will be like this year if the high country remains closed.
I think Tioga Road will likely be open in early July and the trails shortly thereafter. It won’t be too much more than normal in the valley, I suspect. June may be the worst month.
Where was the last picture on the page taken?
In Shasta Valley.