Tuolumne River

I met three friends early for the drive to the trailhead off Cherry Lake Road to backpack along the Tuolumne River near Yosemite National Park. The weather report was for rain, but we decided to do it anyway and by the time we got to the parking lot and loaded up our gear, the rain was already coming down. A lot of water was being released from the dam at Hetch Hetchy reservoir up above, so the river was swollen, raging, and beautiful. We hiked four and one half miles to Preston Falls along a beautiful, flower-lined trail and set up camp. It rained most of the day and night, but it wasn't cold or windy, so it wasn't unpleasant. The place where we had intended to camp was under water because the river was so swollen, so we had to camp downstream a bit from Preston Falls.