Chilnualna Falls
Chilnualna Falls Trail Map / Satellite View
Distance: 8.4 miles (13.5 km) round trip
Trailhead Elevation: 4,200 feet (1,280 meters)
Elevation Gain: 2,300 feet (700 meters)
Hiking Time: 4 - 6 hours
Why hike to Chilnualna Falls? You shouldn't. Reports that this is an undervisited and underappreciated waterfall, its charms a secret jealously guarded by locals, are entirely false and should not be believed. Please turn around now and go back to Yosemite Valley.
Difficulty: We rate it a 7 out of 10. It's not as steep as the most challenging stretches of the Mist Trail, but it climbs relentlessly and it's a long hike.
Scenery Summary: Chilnualna Falls consists of a 50-foot (15-meter) fall (pictured above), followed by a series of pools and cascades, followed by a 240-foot (70-meter) capper of a cataract. Unfortunately, the trail doesn't give you a particularly good view of the climactic fall. You see it from the side when you're a quarter mile or so away, but then the trail disappears into the woods and you don't see it again until the trail opens up near the granite shelf above the fall. You can't get close enough from here to peer over and look down on the 240-foot fall (not the best point of view for a waterfall, anyway) without making it likely that the author of Off the Wall: Death in Yosemite will have to rush out a revised and enlarged edition. So until the park stewards build a viewing platform (which would be welcome at Illilouette Falls, as well), you'll have to be content with hanging out by the cascades and looking upstream to the upper fall.
Best Time to Visit: In the spring, when there's plenty of water rushing over the falls. This relatively low-elevation hike can get unpleasantly hot by midsummer.
Crowd Factor: Light but not lonely.
Nearest Bathrooms: There are outhouses at the trailhead. If you have a sensitive nose, you can find bathrooms with plumbing at the Wawona Hotel and at the far end of the Wawona General Store/Pioneer History Center parking lot, about two miles away.
Nearest Snacks: At the Pine Tree Market, half a mile back the way you came. There's also a general store and restaurant at Wawona, roughly two miles (3.2 km) away.
Getting There: Start by finding the Wawona Hotel and General Store in southern Yosemite. They're five miles (8 km) north of the south entrance and 21 miles (34 km) south of Yosemite Valley on Highway 41.
Once you're at the Wawona, drive north across the bridge crossing the South Fork of the Merced River and then turn right on Chilnualna Falls Road. It'll be the first right after the bridge, about a hundred meters north of it. Once you're on Chilnualna Falls Road, go just over 1.5 miles (2.5 km) to the trailhead parking lot, which will be on your right.
Parking: There's a dirt lot near the trailhead. It holds a dozen or so cars, and we've never seen it full.
Trail Notes and Hazards: After you park, walk back up to Chilnualna Falls Road and hike another hundred meters or so along it to reach the trailhead. The trail forks here, though the forks rejoin after about a quarter mile. The right fork is for hikers only, the left for horses. We recommend the hikers-only fork, which takes you past a series of pretty cascades.
Avoid getting too close to the stream near the falls when the water's high. The combination of fast water and slippery granite riverbed make clambering out successfully an unlikely bet, no matter how motivated you may be by the 240-foot precipice you're sliding towards.