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Widow's Tears

Yosemite National Park, California, USA

About Widow’s Tears

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Waterfall Safety and Common Sense

Widows Tears appears to suffer from a case of mistaken identity with the neighboring Silver Strand Falls (at least according to a lot of what’s out in the literature).

Many observers (including myself) knew that Silver Strand Falls couldn’t be the often-quoted 1,170ft unless they counted the watercourse that you couldn’t see below Hwy 41.

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Widow’s Tears

In older Yosemite literature, Silver Strand Falls was also called Widow’s Tears (probably by the same guy who once named Ribbon Falls “Virgin’s Tears”).

After sifting through the fog of misinformation and trying to match them up with field observations, I tend to think it’s Widow’s Tears that’s 1,170ft.

Even with all that said about its gaudy height numbers, this is really an ephemeral waterfall with a real short season. To see it, we had to time our visit and know where to look. And given its paltry flow, it was even harder to photograph.

Then again, I have seen trip reports of people ice climbing in the Winter when the falls is frozen, and we must say that the ice that accumulates probably would make this falls look wider than it really is.

In another interesting bit of trivia, I once overheard a tour operator tell a story about a widow who couldn’t stop crying after losing her husband. It wasn’t until after she saw this waterfall that she stopped crying – hence the waterfall’s name. I’m not sure if this is true, but it is quite a story.

Authorities

Widows Tears resides in Yosemite National Park. For information or inquiries about the park as well as current conditions, visit the National Park Service website.

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Tagged with: yosemite valley, yosemite, merced, silver strand falls, tunnel, wawona, el portal, mariposa, sierra, california, waterfall, oakhurst, fresno



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