Crane Flat Lookout vista over Yosemite National Park
Above is a snapshot along the Google Earth
flightpath over Crane Flat lookout from the Golden Gate to White Mt., which you
can engage in from the Mount
Diablo 2 page of this website.
Below
is a panorama taken from the catwalk of the Crane Flat Lookout. Looking in the
direction of the orange windsock, lightning bearing storm clouds are moving in
from the West.
The tanker truck which can be seen to the north is used to fuel the
helicopter.
Between the windsock and truck, 13 miles distant is the Hetch-Hetchy
reservoir area that provides water to San Francisco, 144 miles away. The large
white roof area to the East, in the direction of the Yosemite Valley, is the
crew quarters, office and ready room for the helitack base. To the right of the
American flag, you are looking south towards Fresno, 70 miles away. Above the
bare snags the prominent mountain is Pilot Peak lookout, 6 1/4 miles away.
Through the notch in that ridge. Mt. Diablo can be seen 115 miles away to the
West.
This is a rotating panorama of the vista around this lookout. It can be slow to load, but is worth waiting for. Clicking on the panorama will stop its motion, and you can then click and drag it manually at different speeds depending upon where you place your cursor adjacent to the edge of the panorama. If it does not appear, you may see a message at the top of the page asking you to turn off your pop-up blocker to allow it to appear. If you see a message in the panorama space reading “out of memory”, just click over to one of the other links on this page, and then back in to this one to make the panorama appear.
Yosemite Valley Portal Overlook
Cloud Dragon standing guard over Yosemite Valley
This photo was
taken from the Valley Portal overlook along the road that descends into Yosemite
Valley away from Crane Flat Lookout/Helibase. It looks down the Merced River
Canyon towards Bridal Veil Falls.