United States scenic viewpoint
Olmsted Point
You can see 32 km from here, looking north.
Calculating the panorama…
Drag to turn around. The relief is drawn 2.2 times taller so the ridges can be read; far ridges are paler, as in the real air.
The view
Up to 32 km away.
Calculated on the relief one degree at a time, up to 250 km, with the curvature of the Earth and the refraction of the air: what stands above the horizon from here.
Our own rating, from the relief and the climate only: open horizon (35 points), how far you see (25), sea and named peaks in view (20) and clear months (20).
- 32 kmFarthest ridgelooking north
- 90%Open horizonof the circle where the horizon is below your eyes
- 14Peaks in viewnamed summits that rise above the relief in front
- 2,557 mAltitudeabove the sea, at the highest point of the viewpoint
The 14 peaks you can name from here
From west to east as you turn around: height, distance and direction. Each one links to its guide on Peakyas, our mountain atlas.
From the relief only: buildings, trees and haze are not in the model. On a hazy day you see much less; 250 km is the limit of our calculation.
The sun
The best sunsets are from June to September.
When the sun really disappears from this viewpoint — behind the relief or into the sea — and in which direction, on the 15th of each month, in local time.
- Jansouth-west30 min before the sea-level sunset44%
- Febwest38 min before the sea-level sunset41%
- Marwest38 min before the sea-level sunset40%
- Aprwest28 min before the sea-level sunset47%
- Maywest28 min before the sea-level sunset54%
- Junnorth-west30 min before the sea-level sunset73%
- Julnorth-west30 min before the sea-level sunset77%
- Augwest24 min before the sea-level sunset80%
- Sepwest36 min before the sea-level sunset79%
- Octwest40 min before the sea-level sunset70%
- Novsouth-west34 min before the sea-level sunset56%
- Decsouth-west26 min before the sea-level sunset42%
- Time: when the sun goes behind the horizon you see from here.
- Minutes: how much earlier the relief hides the sun.
- %: share of clear sky that month (NASA, 2001–2020).
The highlighted months are the clearest. Golden hour starts about an hour before.
The place
Olmsted Point.
Viewing area in Yosemite National Park, California
Olmsted Point is a scenic viewpoint in United States, 2,557 m above the sea.
On a clear day the farthest ridge you can see is 32 km away, looking north.
14 named peaks rise above the relief in front; the most prominent is Half Dome (2,693 m), 8 km away.
The horizon is open, below your eyes, over 90% of the circle.
The skies are clearest from June to September.
Get there and stay
- May Lake High Sierra Campcampsite · 4.0 km · 14 within 10 km
- Ahwahnee Hotelplace to stay · 10 km · 3 within 10 km
- Yosemite Valleynearest town · 11 km in a straight linePlaces to stay in Yosemite ValleyBooking.com · sponsored link↗
- Mammoth Yosemite Airport (MMH)nearest airport with scheduled flights · 60 km in a straight lineCar hire at FAT airport (Fresno)Discover Cars · sponsored link↗
Plan the visit
A guided tour, a bed nearby, a car.
Some links above are affiliate links: if you book through them we may earn a commission, at no extra cost to you. It never changes what the data on this page says.
From above
The viewpoint and its surroundings.
The satellite image of the 6 × 6 km around the viewpoint, with what OpenStreetMap shows nearby.
Around, in OpenStreetMap
- 9other viewpoints within 5 kmView on Tenaya Lake and 8 more
- 11named peaks within 5 kmMount Hoffmann, Sunrise Mountain, Clouds Rest and 8 more
- 4marked trails within 3 kmSnow Creek Trail, High Sierra Camp Loop, Clouds Rest Trail and 1 more
- 28car parks within 3 km
- 14campsites within 10 kmMay Lake High Sierra Camp, Sunrise High Sierra Camp, Porcupine Flat Campground and 11 more
- 3places to stay within 10 kmAhwahnee Hotel, Yosemite Valley Lodge
- cable car and funicular stations within 5 km
- shelters and huts within 5 km
- visitor centres within 5 km
- restaurants and cafés within 3 km
Counted in OpenStreetMap, the map anyone can edit. A low number may just mean nobody has mapped it yet.
In our other atlases
What you see from Olmsted Point, and what is near.
Everything around this viewpoint — mountains, water, forests, birds, caves and the night sky — in the family's atlases.
Peakyas102 mountains within 25 km
Lakeyas1 lakes within 15 km
Darkskyas8 dark-sky places within 30 km
Canyonyas9 canyons within 20 kmFigures from the sister sites' databases (Wikidata, HydroATLAS, GeoNames, OpenStreetMap, GBIF). Links open when each site is online.
Photographs
The view, as people saw it.
Other viewpoints nearby.
Olmsted Point
United States
- 58Viewyas Score
- 32 kmFarthest ridge
- 14Peaks in view
- 2,557 mAltitude
Half Dome
United States · 8 km
- 84Viewyas Score
- 243 kmFarthest ridge
- 58Peaks in view
- 2,655 mAltitude
Dewey Point
United States · 19 km
- 84Viewyas Score
- 230 kmFarthest ridge
- 43Peaks in view
- 2,250 mAltitude
Taft Point
United States · 15 km
- 69Viewyas Score
- 212 kmFarthest ridge
- 3Peaks in view
- 2,268 mAltitude
Where these figures come from
| Name and type | Wikidata (Q7088437) · CC0 |
|---|---|
| Sun | J. Meeus, Astronomical Algorithms |
| Peaks in view | Peakyas (Wikidata, CC0) |
| Panorama and altitude | Copernicus DEM GLO-90 / GLO-30 · © DLR e.V., © Airbus Defence and Space GmbH, Copernicus/ESA |
| Clouds | NASA POWER (CERES SYN1deg, 2001–2020; MERRA-2) |
| What is around | © OpenStreetMap contributors · ODbL |
| Images | EOX Sentinel-2 cloudless 2016 · CC BY 4.0; Wikimedia Commons |
| Sister atlases | Peakyas, Lakeyas, Darkskyas, Canyonyas, Cascadyas |
Every figure is an average, an estimate or a count from a public dataset. Licences and methods: data sources.
The family
Do you prefer beaches, lakes, mountains, waterfalls, islands, rivers, canyons, caves, dark skies, viewpoints, birdwatching or forests?
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