Taft Point Trail

Taft Point is one of Yosemite's most dramatic and vertigo-inducing viewpoints, a sheer cliff edge dropping approximately 3,000 feet to the Valley floor below with absolutely no railing, fence, or barrier of any kind between the visitor and the void. The 1.1-mile trail from the shared Taft Point and Sentinel Dome trailhead on Glacier Point Road winds through forest and across open granite slabs before emerging at the cliff edge of the Profile Cliff high on the south wall of Yosemite Valley. The approach passes the Fissures, a series of narrow parallel cracks in the granite slabs that plunge vertically through the cliff face to the Valley floor far below—peering into these slot canyons in the rock provides a visceral sense of the depth. The main overlook at Taft Point extends as a gently sloping granite ramp that terminates abruptly at the cliff edge, providing direct views of El Capitan's vertical southwest face approximately one mile away. Climbers on El Capitan are sometimes visible from this vantage point as tiny colored dots on the enormous granite wall. The exposure at Taft Point is genuinely extreme, and visitors should exercise exceptional caution—the rock slopes slightly toward the edge and can be slippery when wet. Sunset photography from Taft Point, looking toward El Capitan silhouetted against the western sky, is world-renowned among landscape photographers.