The O’Shaughnessy Dam, designed to provide water for the city of San Francisco, was in place by 1923 to drown the Hetch Hetchy Valley. Before the valley was flooded, it was apparently comparable in aesthetic effect to the Yosemite Valley, though perhaps smaller in overall dimensions. John Muir advocated hard to prevent the construction of the dam, but political pressures won out in the end and the valley became a reservoir.
Beautiful flowers of an array of colors were present on our mid-May hike. Perhaps someday the valley will be restored. It would then be many decades or centuries before the effects of the dam will no longer be apparent, but what an interesting experiment in ecological succession and restoration!
