Panorama Point

Panorama Point is an unsigned detour off the Panorama Trail, and most hikers walk straight past it — there's no marker, just a break in the manzanita about half a mile beyond the Illilouette Creek bridge. It used to be an official stop with guardrails, until a 1977 rockfall took part of the point down to the valley floor. The park service pulled the guardrails and rerouted the main trail away from the edge, and some of that old railing still hangs out over open air today.

What's Left to See

The reward for finding it is a wide-open look across Yosemite Valley: Glacier Point (close enough to make out the gift shop and the Geology Hut), the Royal Arches, North Dome, and the back side of Half Dome. Look straight down and you can pick out hikers working their way up the early switchbacks of the Mist Trail, far below on the Valley floor.

Know Before You Go

• The point sits above a roughly 1,000-foot drop to the Merced River, with no guardrails since the 1977 slide — stay well back from the outer edge.
• The turnoff is unsigned: watch for a spur breaking left off the Panorama Trail through a patch of manzanita, about half a mile past the Illilouette Creek bridge.
• It's a stop along the way, not a destination of its own — most people pass it while hiking the full Panorama Trail (Glacier Point to Happy Isles, about 8.5 miles one-way), and no permit is required.