Yosemite 2024: Sentinel Dome, Roosevelt Point, Taft Point

 

On the way to Glacier Point road, the GPS on the phone announced that Glacier Point Road was closed. I kept going, assuming that there would be warnings all over the park if that was true. We stopped at the tunnel view point for a very cold morning shoot before driving straight to the trailhead.

Following the signs to sentinel dome, we hiked around the dome itself before climbing it on the gentle side. The view from the top was nice, we got a nice view of half dome as well as El Capitan.

From the dome proper, we descended down towards Roosevelt point, passing a generator driven cell tower along the way. Indeed, we got very strong 5G internet there, and this was the best cell reception I'd ever seen in a National Park. Roosevelt point itself had no marker, but the trail along the way granted us plenty of views.

When we got to Taft point, the crowds had increased. This was clearly well known. Lots of people were posing on top of the point for dramatic photos and we did not resist.

After the hike, we drove down to Washburn Point and Glacier Point for the views and more crowds. To my surprise despite the traffic, we never actually had trouble finding parking. Then we drove down to the Yosemite Valley Lodge food court for a late lunch/early dinner. The food court was an example of excessive automation. There were kiosks where you had to order food from a touch screen. However, all but two of the touch screens were broken, and all it took was a couple of parties who were slow at making up their mind to gum the whole works up. Somebody thought that saving money on cashiers or order takers was a good idea and forgot that electronics failure would be difficult to service in a National Park!

After dinner, we walked to the swinging bridge for sunset views. Unfortunately, we couldn't get any good shots of the half dome in Alpen glow from where we were, but the Merced river was still as a mirror and we got some good pictures before returning to the Cedar Lodge for the night for more swimming (proving once again that kids have infinite energy!)

That night, I searched in vain for an alternative to the Mirror Lake hike we were planning to do tomorrow, since the lake itself was all dried up in the fall! But everything would involve a lot more driving so we opted for sticking to the original plan.