Three Chute Falls (also known as Hidden Falls or Tenaya Creek Falls) is a

waterfall A waterfall is a point in a river or stream where water flows over a vertical drop or a series of steep drops. Waterfalls also occur where meltwater drops over the edge of a tabular iceberg or ice shelf. Waterfalls can be formed in several wa ...

Tenaya Creek Tenaya (died 1853) was a leader of the Ahwahnechee people in Yosemite Valley, California. Background Tenaya's father was a leader of the Ahwahnechee people (or Awahnichi). The Ahwahneechee had become a tribe distinct from the other tribes in the ...

Yosemite National Park Yosemite National Park ( ) is an American national park in California, surrounded on the southeast by Sierra National Forest and on the northwest by Stanislaus National Forest. The park is managed by the National Park Service and covers an ar ...

, in the U.S. state of

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

. The waterfall is located in lower

Tenaya Canyon Tenaya Canyon is a dramatic and dangerous canyon in Yosemite National Park, California, USA, that runs from the outlet of Tenaya Lake 10 miles down to Yosemite Valley, carrying water in Tenaya Creek through a series of spectacular cascades and ...

, around a half mile upstream from Mirror Lake. The name is from the three distinct "chutes" that the creek splits into upon flowing onto a slab of

granite Granite () is a coarse-grained (phaneritic) intrusive igneous rock composed mostly of quartz, alkali feldspar, and plagioclase. It forms from magma with a high content of silica and alkali metal oxides that slowly cools and solidifies undergro ...

atop the falls, after which it plunges about into a congregation of boulders.

Access

The falls are easily reached by proceeding upstream along the Mirror Lake Trail. They are relatively obscure, and the trail requires some scrambling. Further upstream is the much larger,

Pywiack Cascade The Pywiack Cascade is a waterfall in Yosemite National Park within the U.S. state of California. It is located a few miles downstream from the outlet of Tenaya Lake on Tenaya Creek at the head of the steep and rugged granite gorge, Tenaya Canyo ...

of Tenaya Creek.

References

* Shaffer, Chris. ''A Definitive Guide To Waterfalls of Central and Southern California.'' Shafdog Publications, 2005. Waterfalls of Yosemite National Park Waterfalls of Mariposa County, California Plunge waterfalls {{Yosemite-stub