Hiking to Yosemite's Taft Point

Dear Friends, I greet you from Yosemite

My favorite short hike along the Glacier Point Road .........is Taft Point.  This would be my first hike there since the death of my neighbor Dean Potter...the famous climber.  When I reached Taft Point, there was a young man who knew Dean.  He had just changed his mind about slack lining today....He was not feeling like it was a go for today.

There were so many Park visitors at Taft Point today....Saturday.....the trailhead parking area was full. Why?

Dana C. Morgenson's writes in her book, Yosemite Wildflower Trails, "The view from Taft Point is one of the finest along the south rim and deserves a long look.  All the central part of Yosemite Valley is within sight, and the great north wall displays its varied structure from El Capitan to North Dome in an unbroken sweep.  Nearby are large vertical cracks in the rim, known as the Fissures, where ages of erosion have removed the granite along joint planes in the rock, leaving narrow crevices of astounding depth."

Some notes:

• Bring the camera.....I had so many photographs to share with you...I hope you like the ones with the visitor enjoying the beauty and drama of Taft Point.
• A wonderful hike......the views from Taft Point are awesome .
• The guard rail at the overhanging lookout point...I was glad it was there.
• Along the trail there is glistening whitish grey quartz.  Stop and take a look.
• Sentinel Creek is crossed...which much later falls over the rim to become Sentinel Fall...amazing.
• Taft Point and the Fissures are potentially dangerous, so children must be kept under strict control.
• Fissures....wide gaps in the rock....hundreds of feet deep.
• Spend time at the Taft Point area.....several unique views.....that you get nowhere else.
• Be thankful for places like this...so beautiful and free.

  Remember Dean and Graham. FYI...

Taft Point was named in honor of President William Howard Taft, who visited Yosemite Valley in October 1909.  On this visit he met with conservationist John Muir who was fighting against the building the dam at Hetch Hetchy Valley, the second Yosemite Valley within the Park...which would kill it by permanently flooding the valley....as it would be turned into a reservoir.  President Taft did oppose the dam, but it was built later.....1914.

John Muir founded the Sierra Club in 1892, and was its first president.  Conservationist and former Sierra Club President David Brower writes, "From his first discovery of Yosemite in 1868 until Christmas Eve, 1914, when he died, John Muir believed that Yosemite was one of the most important places on Earth.  John Muir found what he wanted in the Sierra:  wildness-something more vital than mere scenery- and the wild creatures and plants and space and sky and light that belonged there."

FYI 

I would have loved to have met John Muir, but I did have the pleasure of meeting David Brower.  John Muir liked to camp....but when you come to Yosemite, stay in one of our Scenic Wonders' cozy vacation homes....bring the family and go hiking.

Another terrific day in Yosemite