Sentinel Dome & Taft Point
Yosemite National Park (Glacier Point Road) · near Yosemite Valley (45 min drive) · Sierra Nevada / Yosemite
Hiking
At a glance
- Difficulty
- moderate
- Route type
- loop
- Distance
- 5 miles
- Elevation gain
- 900 ft
- Time needed
- day
- Best season
- June–October (Glacier Point Road closes in winter)
Permits and booking
- Permit required
- No
- How the permit works
- No hiking permit required. Standard NPS entry fee. Glacier Point Road timed entry required May–October — book separately on Recreation.gov.
- How hard the permit is to get
- 0 of 5
What is here
- Features
- Sentinel Dome: 360° views including Half Dome and El Capitan · Taft Point: sheer 3,500-foot drop to Valley floor with protective railing (mostly) · Dead Jeffrey pine on Sentinel dome — iconic silhouette · 5-mile loop connects both in one trip
Worth knowing
- Dogs
- Not permitted
- Good for a first timer
- Yes
Hiking detail
- Intl tip
- Glacier Point itself (the viewpoint at the end of Glacier Point Road) provides a famous view of Half Dome, Vernal Fall, Nevada Fall, and the Valley from 7,214 feet — accessible by car when the road is open. Many visitors combine the Sentinel/Taft hike with a late afternoon at Glacier Point for the finest day in Yosemite that doesn't require a cable permit.
The guide
For the ratio of effort to payoff, the Sentinel Dome and Taft Point loop may be the best hike in Yosemite. Five miles, 900 feet…
In the Guidebook
Everything above is yours for free. The written guide to Sentinel Dome & Taft Point — what it is actually like, and what we would tell a friend before they went — comes with the Guidebook.
Getting there
- Coordinates
- 37.7304, -119.5848