Partial view of Illilouette Fall as seen from Washburn Point Glacier Point is at the end of Glacier Point Road (signpost G11) and is typically a very popular and busy viewpoint. To attain the closest and perhaps most satisfying view of Illilouette Fall, we had to hike the first two miles (4 miles round trip) of the Panorama Trail starting from Glacier Point. Experiencing Illilouette Fall – hiking part of the Panorama Trail to its best view That way, you can choose which excursion you can go for as well as figure out other logistics while planning your visit. Since we’ve highlighted a couple of different ways to view Illilouette Fall, we’ll describe them individually below. So I’m guessing that you’d probably want to time a visit for the snowmelt period to get the most bang for your physical effort and time. Illilouette Fall in pretty high Spring flow back in May 2004 However, I’ve read in the literature that this waterfall really loses its vigor towards the late Summer and Autumn months where its flow degenerates into thin sheets sliding down the vertical canyon wall. Somehow it became the French-sounding Illilouette (which is not French, by the way), and it’s also said the meaning and origin remain unclear despite this anecdote.Įvery time we’ve visited this waterfall, it was during the Spring so we always saw it in high flow. It’s said that the waterfall’s name (note that the convention is to drop that last “s” in “Falls” again) was actually a bastardization of a Miwok saying for something that sounded closer to “Too-lool-lo-we-ack.” Distant view of Illilouette Falls as seen from North DomeĪnd any other views of the falls were primarily partial or blocked. Otherwise, it could only be seen in profile from a distance on the John Muir Trail or even from North Dome. Indeed, perhaps the best place to view it was from a cliffhanging lookout on the Panorama Trail where I know we had to test our fear of heights to get a full view of it. However, the waterfall faced away from the opening of the canyon, which limited the number of placese that it could be seen. In terms of positioning, it turned out that this waterfall was situated at the head of a narrow canyon formed by Illilouette Creek. Illilouette Fall – positioning, nomenclature, and timing So I guess the relative obscurity of this waterfall was probably more circumstance and positioning than anything else. For a waterfall as big as Illilouette Fall (said to be 370ft tall), I thought it was rather strange that it had a tendency to elude most of the millions of visitors to Yosemite each year.īut then again, we’re talking about Yosemite here, where large waterfalls seemed to be the norm rather than the exception.
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