Alder Creek

Alder Creek is Yosemite's answer to the question 'what if I want a waterfall all to myself?' The route winds through open pine forest that feels more like the Sierra backcountry than the polished trails near the Valley floor. You'll climb steadily — think two Empire State Buildings stacked on top of each other — through a landscape that alternates between sun-dappled forest and exposed granite sections. The trail is lightly maintained and can be faint in spots, which is exactly why you won't see the crowds that plague Vernal Fall. Your reward is a 100-foot cascade that thunders in late spring and threads delicately down the rock face by midsummer. The shorter 7.4-mile option from Mosquito Creek Trailhead shaves off distance but not the sense of earned solitude. This is a trail for hikers who consider 'no one else was there' the highest compliment a destination can receive.