Now Open: Yosemite's Glacier Point Road

It's an early spring open for the typically snowy route.

THAT MAJESTIC VISTAS: Mondays can make some of us feel as though we see the same things over and over. Same route to work (though common wisdom says changing that up, from time to time, is a good thing). Same inbox and outbox on the desk, same view out the conference room window, the same half sandwich you left in the office fridge last week, staring back at you. The solution, of course, is new views, when we can get them. One of the best-known life-freshening views to be found on this side of the earth -- and possibly the whole of the Milky Way, if we might be so bold -- is to observe Yosemite National Park's own Half Down from a higher-up point than the Valley floor.

G.P. LOVE: Sure, that could be Tunnel View, which is really the legendary long-scope view of the granite wonder, or even Olmstead Point, which gives a different look at the ol' H.D. But many a visitor speaks of journeying up to Glacier Point, a vista which lends Half Dome that sort of more sideways-on view. It's the place where, at sunset, Half Dome seems to be facing the dying light of the day, in contemplation. And standing at Glacier Point gives you a better feel for its smoother "backside" (well, backside, at least, in terms of facing away from the Valley). Is it time you reset the stuff you see every single day? 

GLACIER POINT ROAD IS OPEN: The route up to Glacier Point debuted for the season on Saturday, March 28 (yep, that's pretty early, which goes in line with the drought the state has been weathering). "All visitor services at Glacier Point will be fully operational," says the official Yosemite site. It's a leisurely hour-ish when you drive from the Valley to Glacier Point, depending on taking your time, enjoying the scenery, and letting the wildlife have the right of way. So how's the opening 2015 date for Tioga Road looking? No estimated opening at this time, says the National Park Service.

Copyright FREEL - NBC Local Media
Contact Us