Best Viewpoints & Easy Hikes in Yosemite National Park
Yosemite is a must see place if you’re visiting Northern California. There’s just nothing like those granite mountains! It’s located 4 hours from San Francisco, so a day trip is doable (though I’d recommend staying way longer).
Yosemite has some of the most epic hiking trails, but I’ll save those for another blog post. In this blog post, I listed the top 5 easily accessible, most instagrammable places that you can drive to with minimal walking (they are starred below). I also listed 4 short hikes (not starred) in case you’re tired of sitting in the car and want to walk a bit. You can visit all of these spots in a day, but depending on how much you want to hike, it might be optimal to visit all 5 starred spots and maybe 1 or 2 of the non-starred spots.
1. Glacier Point*
Distance: Right outside parking lot
Duration: 1 minute from parking lot
Difficulty: Very easy
The best bang for your buck. You have to drive quite a ways to get here (30 minutes from the valley), but it’s so worth it. Walk 1 minute from the parking lot and you’ll see the infamous Half Dome. There’s a rock that everyone likes to take a picture on, so sometimes there’s a line, but don’t worry there’s plenty of other photo taking spots up here. You can walk to the other side and see the valley. There’s also a gift shop where you can get snacks and stuff.
2. Washburn Point*
Distance: Right outside parking lot
Duration: 30 seconds from parking lot
Difficulty: Very easy
Washburn Point is probably my favorite spot on this list. It’s right before Glacier Point and offers roughly the same view of Half Dome that Glacier Point does, but at a different angle. Many people tend to miss this spot on their way to Glacier Point, so there’s also way less people here.
3. Sentinel Dome
Distance: 2.2 miles roundtrip
Elevation Gain: 400 ft
Duration: 1 – 2 hours roundtrip
Difficulty: Easy – Moderate
Sentinel Dome offers almost 360 degree views of Yosemite. It starts at a higher elevation of 7,700 ft so you’ll probably walk slower than normal.
4. Taft Point
Distance: 2.2 miles roundtrip
Elevation Gain: 200 ft
Duration: 1 – 2 hours roundtrip
Difficulty: Easy – Moderate
Taft Point is cool because the rock juts out and has very high drops. It starts at the same trailhead as Sentinel Dome does, so you also start hiking at 7,700 ft.
5. Tunnel View*
Distance: Right outside parking lot
Duration: 30 seconds from parking lot
Difficulty: Very easy
This is literally the easiest viewpoint to get to. All you have to do is walk out of the car and voila you’re there (unless you parked across the street, in which case you’ll have to cross the street, but still). The view is breathtaking – you can see El Capitan on your left and waterfalls on your right and all the trees in the middle.
6. Bridalveil Fall*
Distance: 0.5 miles roundtrip
Duration: 15 minutes roundtrip
Difficulty: Easy
This waterfall is maybe a 5-10 minute walk from the parking lot. Once you get to the waterfall, be prepared to get wet. Getting wet is a good thing because that means there’s a lot of water. When I went in 2015, it was a very sad line of water, so I was very happy to see and feel so much water when I went in 2018.
7. Vernal Falls (Bottom)
Distance: 1.6 miles roundtrip to the bottom of Vernal Falls
Elevation Gain: 400 ft
Duration: 1 – 1.5 hour roundtrip
Difficulty: Easy – Moderate
Vernal Falls is a massive rectangular looking waterfall. The hike starts at 4,000 ft elevation so it’s a little more difficult than a normal 1.6 mile hike. Once you get to the bottom of the falls, you can continue to the top of the falls. If you choose to do that, you’ll have to add another mile roundtrip and another 1000 ft to the total. You’ll have to climb a lot of stairs and the stairs will often be wet so it’ll be tricky coming down. I personally don’t think the view from the top is all that amazing.
8. Mirror Lake
Distance: 2 miles roundtrip
Elevation Gain: 100 ft
Duration: 1 hour roundtrip
Difficulty: Easy
Mirror Lake is a easy roundtrip hike with very little elevation gain. You can either hike on the paved trail or you can hike on the service road. When it’s dry, there’s a chance you won’t see a lake, so hopefully you go after some rain.
9. Lower Yosemite Falls*
Distance: 1 mile roundtrip
Duration: 20 minutes roundtrip
Difficulty: Easy
You’ll see the waterfall probably a minute from the parking lot. It’s tall and grand, you can’t miss it. It’s probably another 5-10 minutes of walking to get up close to the waterfall, but you’re going to be so distracted by the beauty you won’t even notice how long the walk is.
Map
The entrance that you arrive in will determine which spots to go to first. Just note that you should do all the spots in Yosemite Valley together because the traffic looping through the valley is a pain.
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