Basics
Itinerary
Overview
The Pohono Trail is a 13-mile trail located on Yosemite Valley’s south rim that connects Tunnel View and Glacier Point. It contains many of Yosemite’s famous vista points such as Dewey Point, Taft Point, and Glacier Point, and offers views from multiple angles of El Capitan and Yosemite Falls on the north side of the valley.
The trail can be hiked from Glacier Point to Tunnel View (more popular since it’s more downhill), or in reverse. You can drive to Glacier Point to start your hike down to the valley. Bridalveil Creek is approximately the halfway point, and camping is not allowed east of Bridalveil Creek in the summer when Glacier Point Road is open. Many people will either camp at Bridalveil Creek to be next to a water source or closer to the scenic points between Tunnel View and Dewey Point for the views.
We hiked the Pohono Trail from Tunnel View to Glacier Point over 2 days and 1 night during Memorial Day weekend in 2022. Glacier Point Road was closed for construction for the 2022 season, so we hiked from Glacier Point back down to the valley via the Four Mile trail. Tunnel View and the Four Mile Trailhead are 4.8 miles apart, and the closest Yosemite Valley shuttle stop to Tunnel View is still 3.3 miles away, so you will need to either hitchhike or have 2 cars.
Despite it being peak season during one of Yosemite’s busiest weekends of the year, we found great solitude once we were on the Pohono Trail and had Taft Point all to ourselves.
Day 1: Tunnel View to Bridalveil Creek
I’m not an early-bird, but I still prefer waking up at 5 AM for overnight trips over driving the night before and turning it into a 2-night ordeal. But for the past few trips, we have been starting our hikes pretty late despite our bold attempts to leave the Bay Area while it’s still dark.
After a morning of mishaps involving driving on the wrong freeway, failing to get a hitchhike, forgetting an item in the car, and switching out a not broken-in hiking shoe, we finally embarked on the Pohono Trail from Tunnel View at 1 PM.
Then we missed the first sharp switchback and ended up walking 10 minutes off-trail. It appeared that enough people had made the same mistake as us because for the first minute or so it actually looked like a trail. At least, it did until we started having to walk across steep rock faces, step over logs, and duck between overgrown foliage. We checked the map and realized how far from the trail we were. This happened at least one other time, so definitely keep an eye on the map at the beginning of the Pohono Trail.
Most of the elevation gain on the Pohono Trail going west to east is in the initial 2,600 ft climb out of the valley over 3 miles. It was definitely steep, but it was not nearly as torturous as other trails out of Yosemite Valley (in recent memory, Upper Yosemite Falls oof). The steep bits were regularly broken up by flatter segments, and the trail was brushy rather than rocky.
At the 1 mile mark, we expected to see Inspiration Point. But all we saw was a sign for Inspiration Point and trees. It turns out we missed the turnoff for the actual vista point. In photos online, Inspiration Point looks like Tunnel View with more trees in the way, so it doesn’t seem like we missed out on too much.
Next was Old Inspiration Point. When we got there, there were no signs, no trails, and still lots of trees. We made out a use trail and followed it for a few minutes, but then we checked the map and realized how steeply downhill the viewpoint was from the trail. We weren’t even sure if we could see it from where we were. So we aborted and continued to the easier to reach viewpoints.
I usually get bored hiking in the trees, but in a way, the scarcity of views made the views that much more dramatic when we came upon them. Just when you think you can’t handle the uphill anymore—boom, unobstructed valley views.
Stanford Point was the first big view of the day and marked the end of our 3 mile cardio workout. Stanford Point is like the warm up for Crocker Point. The views look almost identical except that at Crocker Point, Bridalveil Falls is no longer obscured behind the curvature of the valley.
We got to Bridalveil Creek around 6 PM. After not seeing people all day, it was kind of jarring to suddenly be around so many campers.
My friend and I decided to keep hiking to Taft Point to catch the sunset. You approach Taft Point on an uphill, so the valley comes into view little by little, each step revealing just a bit more until you step up to the metal railing right on the edge. It was my first time ever seeing Taft Point, and it was breathtaking. El Capitan and Upper Yosemite Falls were the centerpieces of this sprawling 180 degree panorama of the heart of Yosemite Valley.
The clouds grew thicker as the light faded. Some lower hanging clouds moved into the valley. The wisps swirled around us, swallowing the beams of our headlights. I thought about how we were simultaneously so close and so far from the bustle of the valley beneath. We could see dots of lights from the cars of daytime tourists leaving the valley, yet we were at least 9 miles of hiking from the nearest Yosemite Valley trailhead compared to the usual 1 mile of hiking when Glacier Point Road is open. Not a single person joined us for sunset that night.
Day 2: Bridalveil Creek to Four Mile Trailhead
We were packed up early the next morning since we had a long day of hiking ahead of us. At Taft Point, clouds still hung at the valley rim but quickly evaporated once the sunlight became more intense. The windless morning magnified the blissful quiet.
As the sun rose, the angles of the valley created sharp shadows. I loved using my telephoto lens to frame these high-contrast shots.
By the time I got around to taking the wide shots, the sun was unfortunately already pretty high. But we still had Taft Point to ourselves so we took our time taking photos of each other. We ventured right up to the edge and marveled at the steep dropoff, definitely enduring the full trio of palms sweaty, knees weak, and arms heavy.
We decided to do a breakfast of bars and not cook until we were at Sentinel Dome. The views on this segment are occasional but still striking. None of the viewpoints are named but you’ll pass by them around Sentinel Creek when the trail hugs the valley rim.
Once we got to Sentinel Dome, we had returned to day hiker territory. Most day hikers who had made their way up the Four Mile Trail stopped at Glacier Point, but a few trickled through to Sentinel Dome.
From Glacier Point, it is “only” 4.6 miles down to the valley. It was hard to believe that the top and the bottom of the valley are such a short distance away. There were likely more hikers than normal on the Four Mile Trail since that was the only way to see Glacier Point while the road was closed, and we saw an assortment of hikers young and old. We were grateful that we were not making the grueling trek uphill, although the last few miles still felt endless.
There’s no doubt that the development of Yosemite Valley makes the park much more accessible and approachable. The cell service, multitude of places serving food, well-stocked grocery store, and crowded shuttles all contribute to making Yosemite Valley feel more like a small town and less like the wilderness. As a backpacker, I treasure being able to go where the day hikers cannot, especially in a place like Yosemite Valley where the day hikes are sometimes so packed it feels like I’m navigating the crowds during my rush hour commute. Taft Point, which would normally have been a popular sunset spot overtaken by photographers and their tripods, was serene. I think it will be a very long time before I get to experience Yosemite Valley like I did on this trip.
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