Hetch Hetchy is home to a diverse array of plants and animals.
Gray pine, incense-cedar, and California black oak grow in abundance.
Many examples of red-barked manzanita can be seen along the Hetch Hetchy Road.
Spring and early summer bring wildflowers including lupine, wallflower, monkey flower, and buttercup.
Seventeen species of bats inhabit the Hetch Hetchy area, including the largest North American bat, the western mastiff.

Before damming, the valley floor contained abundant stands of black oaks, live oak, Ponderosa pine, Douglas fir, and silver fir bordering the meadows, with alder, willow, poplar and dogwood in the riparian zone along the Tuolumne River.
The valley's abundant plants provided nourishment for mule deer, black bears and bighorn sheep.
Due to large cataracts on the Tuolumne River upstream, Hetch Hetchy Valley may have been in the uppermost range for native rainbow trout in the river.

Due to its abundant wetlands and stream pools, Hetch Hetchy was notorious among early travelers for becoming infested with mosquitoes in the summertime.
Said San Francisco resident William Denman in 1918, "The first time I went into the Hetch Hetchy the mosquitoes were intolerable.
They would light upon a man's blue shirt and turn it brown, and were voracious as mosquitoes would be."
Hetch Hetchy is home to a diverse array of plants and animals. Gray pine, incense-cedar, and California black oak grow in abundance. Many examples of red-barked manzanita can be seen along the Hetch Hetchy Road. Spring and early summer bring wildflowers including lupine, wallflower, monkey flower, and buttercup. Seventeen species of bats inhabit the Hetch Hetchy area, including the largest North American bat, the western mastiff.
Before damming, the valley floor contained abundant stands of black oaks, live oak, Ponderosa pine, Douglas fir, and silver fir bordering the meadows, with alder, willow, poplar and dogwood in the riparian zone along the Tuolumne River. The valley's abundant plants provided nourishment for mule deer, black bears and bighorn sheep. Due to large cataracts on the Tuolumne River upstream, Hetch Hetchy Valley may have been in the uppermost range for native rainbow trout in the river.
Due to its abundant wetlands and stream pools, Hetch Hetchy was notorious among early travelers for becoming infested with mosquitoes in the summertime. Said San Francisco resident William Denman in 1918, "The first time I went into the Hetch Hetchy the mosquitoes were intolerable. They would light upon a man's blue shirt and turn it brown, and were voracious as mosquitoes would be."
Hetch Hetchy