Falls Creek (California)

Falls Creek
River
One of the several tiers of Wapama Falls
Name origin: Named for the two large waterfalls that occur at its mouth
Country	United States
State	California
Region	Yosemite National Park
Tributaries
- left	Tilden Creek
Landmark	Hetch Hetchy Reservoir
Source	Dorothy Lake
- elevation	9,500 ft (2,896 m)
- coordinates	38°10′10″N 119°35′43″W / 38.16944°N 119.59528°W / 38.16944; -119.59528
Mouth	Hetch Hetchy Reservoir
- elevation	3,783 ft (1,153 m)
- coordinates	37°57′47″N 119°45′55″W / 37.96306°N 119.76528°W / 37.96306; -119.76528Coordinates: 37°57′47″N 119°45′55″W / 37.96306°N 119.76528°W / 37.96306; -119.76528
Length	24 mi (39 km)
Basin	100 sq mi (259 km2)

Falls Creek, also known as the Falls River, is a tributary of the Tuolumne River in Yosemite National Park, California, United States. The creek begins at the northern boundary of the national park and flows 24 miles (39 km) to empty into the Tuolumne at Hetch Hetchy Reservoir, dropping over two well-known waterfalls. The Pacific Crest Trail and other national park trails follow the creek for much of its course.

Falls Creek begins at Dorothy Lake, which is located at one of the northernmost points in the national park. The headwaters, at nearly 10,000 feet (3,000 m) in elevation, lie between Forsyth Peak, Dorothy Lake Pass, Bond Pass and Bigelow Peak. It plunges into Jack Main Canyon, paralleling the Pacific Crest Trail, which carries it south to round Chittenden Peak, where Tilden Creek enters from the left. From there the creek passes Branigan Lake, then cascades down into the basin containing Lake Vernon, which it empties into. Issuing out of the southwest end of the lake, the creek flows in a southwesterly direction, approaching Hetch Hetchy Reservoir. Very near the mouth, it runs past Hetch Hetchy Dome and splits into two distributaries, which both cascade over the rim of Hetch Hetchy Valley, forming two waterfalls, Wapama Falls and Tueeulala Falls.

The Falls Creek watershed, though not officially measured, covers approximately 100 square miles (260 km²) of the Sierra Nevada northern Yosemite National Park. It is a narrow, tilde-shaped area stretching about 18 miles (29 km) from north to south and 2 miles (3.2 km) at its widest. The watershed shares a boundary with Frog Creek and Eleanor Creek to the west, and Tiltill and Rancheria Creek to the east. All of these creeks are tributaries of the Tuolumne River, which is in turn a tributary of the San Joaquin River. The glaciated, mostly-granite bowls and moraines of the Falls Creek watershed are home to many lakes, both named and unnamed. These include Dorothy, Mary, Tilden, Wilma, and Vernon lakes. The creek runs year round and is known to produce large amounts of runoff, often flooding bridges that carry the Hetch Hetchy trail over its mouth in the peak of snowmelt.