If you live in Bay Area, you should know the Tuolumne River. And not just casually either. The way it smells, the way it feels on your skin, its many languages as it drops steeply from its granite source and meanders over meadows and out onto the Central Valley. While not everyone in the Bay Area has the privilege, 2.5 million of us drink of this river everyday. We use it to keep our cells alive and healthy, to brew our tea, to brush our teeth, to clean ourselves, to make this computer I am writing on and the clothes I am wearing.

This river, along with the animals, plants, and rocks that call it home, make their way into our lives everyday- we just don’t stop to notice or appreciate. So, here is the land of the upper Tuolumne for you in pictures. Though really, to know this river, you gotta get your feet wet.

Special thanks to the friends and family who shared this adventure with us!