Old road and viewpoint?

I never noticed this before: http://maps.google.com/maps?hl=en&ie=UTF8&ll=37.719167,-119.702461&spn=0.003789,0.010257&t=k&z=18

This viewpoint? (eta: my bad, nope it's not this viewpoint. This is Inspiration Point on the other side of 41)




Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/12/2010 09:14PM by calipidder.

I'm going to have to check it out next time I'm in that part of the park.

It's not a lookout, and it's not an abandoned road. Roads and trails on a hill that steep are not built that straight. It consists of two straight line segments that lead directly from the Wawona Tunnel entrance to a point directly overlooking the old hydroelectric plant that used to be on the banks of the river.

So what you see was almost certainly cleared of trees for wires to carry power up to the tunnel. I don't see any power lines in the satellite photo, but they can be hard to see. Or they may have been replaced by a newer buried cable under the highway going up to the tunnel.

Feel free to check it out when you get there. The climbs of the Rostrum are nearby to the west, and the communications center on Turtleback Dome is up the hill (southwest) from this "lookout". The top of the Rostrum is a popular picnic area, and has almost the same views that this "lookout' would have, but is slightly to the west.

Yup. Spot on.
This is in the same realm as the "Alien Landing Strip" near Gravel Pit Lake.
http://yosemitenews.info/forum/read.php?1,10240,10249#msg-10249
(remove the trailing > if you want to see the Condon pictures)

Was gonna check the one you mentioned eeek, but... at that opportunity didn't
have huge amount of time... and it's gonna not be as easy as what it
looks on the map. So instead jumped the wall west of there and went down
towards the Rostrum. It's a great place to go esp. when Cascade and
Wildcat are flowing... prob. the best views of those from there.

Maybe I'll check it out someday... I'm still waiting for that picture of the
huge "erratic" atop Turtleback. (was suppose to watch sunset there
last Sat. but the wifey refused after going up Indian Canyon ...
"you can go... I'm going for pizza... I'm not doing any more up today!" )
Geez

It's on the USGS map:



If you look on google earth you can see the cut S of the river too



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/15/2010 06:54AM by bill-e-g.