The water starts right away — our first campsite was so close to a roaring waterfall that it made conversation difficult. We followed the river pretty closely for the first three days.
After the third day of hiking we entered terrain that is not maintained. This meant a fair amount of downed trees across the trail and made progress slower. In general this trail is what I would call very difficult when following the route we did, from Tuolumne to O’Shaugnessey Dam.
Above is a photo from near our nicest campsite. Just a 5-minute walk from camp was a lovely little sand beach right next to a perfect swimming hole.
Our last night of camping was at Rancheria Falls (not shown). Quite an adjustment as it was packed with humans. People literally everywhere. They really need to put in a restroom facility of some sort here as people were pooping behind every rock and tree. We had some entertainment when a group of very new, but very well-equipped backpackers showed up around 9PM. They had a ton of gear.
