Tag: Clouds Rest

At nearly 10,000 feet (over 3,000 m) elevation, Clouds Rest has one of the best panoramic views of Yosemite. On a clear day, the 360-degree field of vision can stretch from Nebraska in the east to Hawaii in the west! Within the National Park, it’s possible to look upon Half Dome, North Dome, Sentinel Rock, Tenaya Lake, Mount Hoffman, and others.

The top of Clouds Rest is a narrow, knife-like ridge, with a sheer 5,000 feet (1,500 m) drop into Tenaya Creek on the north side.  It was shaped by glacial action which also formed Tenaya Canyon and Little Yosemite Valley.

It obtained its name in 1851 at the time the Mariposa Battalion invaded Yosemite Valley in pursuit of the Ahwahneechee people. Lafayette Bunnell, a soldier with the Battalion, wrote that his comrades selected the name Clouds Rest “because upon our first visit the party exploring the Little Yosemite turned back and hastened to camp upon seeing the clouds rapidly settling down to rest upon that mountain, thereby indicating the snowstorm that soon followed”.

He also noted that “Many English names were given because they were thought to be better than the Indian names, which could not be remembered or pronounced, and the meaning of which was not understood”.

It was the Mariposa Battalion that drove out or captured the Ahwahneechees from their valley homelands.