Across the Valley from here, next to the Bridal Veil,
are the picturesque Cathedral Rocks, nearly 2700 feet
high, making a noble display of fine yet massive sculpture.
They are closely related to El Capitan, having been
eroded from the same mountain ridge by the great Yosemite
Glacier when the Valley was in process of formation.
Next to the Cathedral Rocks on the south side towers
the Sentinel Rock to a height of more than 3000 feet,
a telling monument of the glacial period.
Almost immediately opposite the Sentinel are the Three
Brothers, an immense mountain mass with three gables
fronting the Valley, one above another, the topmost
gable nearly 4000 feet high. They were named for
three brothers, sons of old Tenaya, the Yosemite chief,
captured here during the Indian War, at the time of
the discovery of the Valley in 1852.
Sauntering up the Valley through meadow and grove,
in the company of these majestic rocks, which seem
to follow us as we advance, gazing, admiring, looking
for new wonders ahead where all about us is so wonderful,
the thunder of the Yosemite Fall is heard, and when
we arrive in front of the Sentinel Rock it is revealed
in all its glory from base to summit, half a mile
in height, and seeming to spring out into the Valley
sunshine direct from the sky. But even this fall,
perhaps the most wonderful of its kind in the world,
cannot at first hold our attention, for now the wide
upper portion of the Valley is displayed to view,
with the finely modeled North Dome, the Royal Arches
and Washington Column on our left; Glacier Point, with
its massive, magnificent sculpture on the right; and
in the middle, directly in front, looms Tissiack or
Half Dome, the most beautiful and most sublime of
all the wonderful Yosemite rocks, rising in serene
majesty from flowery groves and meadows to a height
of 4750 feet.
Here the Valley divides into three branches, the Tenaya,
Nevada, and
Illilouette Canyons, extending back into the fountains
of the High
Sierra, with scenery every way worthy the relation
they bear to
Yosemite.
In the south branch, a mile or two from the main Valley,
is the Illilouette Fall, 600 feet high, one of the
most beautiful of all the Yosemite choir, but to most
people inaccessible as yet on account of its rough,
steep, boulder-choked canyon. Its principal fountains
of ice and snow lie in the beautiful and interesting
mountains of the Merced group, while its broad open
basin between its fountain mountains and canyon is
noted for the beauty of its lakes and forests and magnificent
moraines.
Returning to the Valley, and going up the north branch
of Tenaya Canyon, we pass between the North Dome and
Half Dome, and in less than an hour come to Mirror
Lake, the Dome Cascade and Tenaya Fall. Beyond
the Fall, on the north side of the canyon is the sublime
Ed Capitan-like rock called Mount Watkins; on the
south the vast granite wave of Clouds’ Rest,
a mile in height; and between them the fine Tenaya
Cascade with silvery plumes outspread on smooth glacier-polished
folds of granite, making a vertical descent in all
of about 700 feet.
