Half Dome
Posted by: 
Touchstone
N 37° 44.704 W 119° 32.003
11S E 276789 N 4180552
An iconic mountain in Yosemite Valley. It's hard to go through the gift shops in Yosemite Valley without seeing the image of this mountain emblazoned on t-shirts, coffee mugs and even shot glasses. Indeed, the National Park Service is so enamored of this mountain that they use a graphic designed silhouette of this mountain as their logo to represent the Park.
Waymark Code: WMR0P
Location: California, United States
Date Posted: 09/20/2006
Views: 147
Half Dome is the most famous landmark in Yosemite Valley, California. It's
very likely that Half Dome never had another half, at least not one as well
formed as this. The flat face overlooks Yosemite Valley, whose U-shaped cross
section is the result of glacial action. The dome itself reflects the general
shape of an intrusion of granodiorite
deep underground. As the intrusion became exposed by erosion, the change in
pressure caused the rock to crack apart in thin shells, which fall off the sides
and leave the mountain clean. The process is called exfoliation,
and Half Dome is a classic exfoliation dome.
The hike to the summit is fairly grueling. The shortest route is
to shuttle up to the East end of the Valley to Happy Isles. From there you
can follow the Mist Trail past two sublime waterfalls (Vernal and Nevada) to
Little Yosemite Valley. From Little Yosemite Valley a trail leads to the
shoulder of Half Dome and the start of the cables. The cables, originally
installed in 1919 by the Sierra Club, will take you up the final 45 degree slab
and 500 vertical feet to the summit.
