07/21/2021
Hiking to the top of Sentinel Dome is by far Yosemite's easiest way to experience miles and miles of views in whatever direction you care to turn. Looking west, you'll see down Yosemite Valley and beyond to the Merced River canyon and, on exceptionally clear days, all the way to Mt. Diablo in the coastal range. To the north you'll see Yosemite Valley, including El Capitan and Yosemite Falls. To the east, you'll see Nevada Fall, Half Dome and Clouds Rest, and an assortment of High Sierra peaks.
To the south, the views are comparably pedestrian, I'm sorry to report. Instead of wasting your eyes looking that way, contemplate instead what may be the world's most famous dead tree: the Jeffrey pine on the summit. About the same age as Shakespeare, it's been photographed thousands of times, but it got its first big break and became a star after it appeared in this 1940 Ansel Adams photo. The tree was killed by drought in 1977, despite attempts to save it by hand-carrying buckets of water up the dome to it, and it finally fell over in 2003.
The trail to the dome is pleasant but not particularly remarkable. You'll cross a bridge over a picturesque brook at the beginning of the hike, and if your timing is good, you may see a few dozen varieties of wildflowers, with large doses of spreading phlox, penstemon, and larkspur, among others. You'll also pass some mature Jeffrey Pine trees next to the trail. If you shove your nose into the bark and take a deep whiff, you'll catch the aroma of butterscotch (or, some say, vanilla). If you don't smell anything, you might have accidentally made your advances to a Ponderosa pine, which has similar looking puzzle-piece bark.
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