Carlon Falls Trail

EXPERIENCE DESCRIPTION

Carlon Falls Trail follows the South Fork of the Tuolumne River through mixed conifer forest to a series of cascades and falls about 1.25 miles from the trailhead. The trail runs along the river the entire way, keeping it shaded and cool even in summer heat, and the falls drop into pools deep enough to swim in from June through August. The trailhead sits on Evergreen Road about 20 minutes from Groveland at the border of the Stanislaus National Forest and Yosemite, and receives a fraction of the traffic of the park trails a few miles further east. Open year-round, no permit required.

OPERATOR STORY

Carlon Falls Trail is maintained by the Stanislaus National Forest, part of the 898,000-acre national forest that borders Yosemite to the west and north along Highway 120. The South Fork Tuolumne River corridor through this section of the forest is one of the more accessible and less-visited canyon environments in the Central Sierra, and the trail to the falls predates the Yosemite tourism era, having been used by prospectors and loggers working the river canyon in the 19th century.