Olmsted Point is where you finally see the back of Half Dome, and it is a shock. From the valley floor, Half Dome is a sheer-faced icon; from here, several miles away, it is a smooth, rounded profile, set at the far end of the long granite trench of Tenaya Canyon. The overlook is on the Tioga Road, a wide, flat shelf of pale glacier-polished granite, and in front of you the rock rolls off in great bare slabs toward the canyon, with giant boulders sitting about on it like dropped marbles.
These are glacial erratics, rocks carried by ice and left stranded when the glaciers melted. The Tuolumne glacier that once filled this country was thousands of feet thick, and it scoured the granite smooth, leaving scratches and polish that are still visible. The landscape is almost lunar, with scattered, wind-bent pines and tufts of grass in the cracks. The viewpoint is named for Frederick Law Olmsted, the landscape architect who designed Central Park, and his son of the same name, who both took an interest in Yosemite's protection.
The road here, Highway 120, is the Tioga Road, built in the 1880s as a mining track, then rebuilt as a proper highway in the twentieth century. It is a long and graceful ride, with sweeping bends through red fir and lodgepole forest, then open stretches along granite domes. The surface is excellent, the traffic can be heavy in summer, and the speed limit is low. Oncoming tour buses are a fact of life. The road is open only in summer, usually from late May or June until the first big snow, and can close abruptly in autumn. At about 2,400 metres the air is crisp, and nights are cold.
Fuel is available at Crane Flat, to the west, and at Tuolumne Meadows, to the east, in summer, though both can run short on busy days, and Lee Vining, beyond the pass, has more. Park entry is paid at the gate, and in some seasons a reservation is needed. Bring a layer even on a hot day, because the wind on the granite can bite, and walk carefully on the polished rock, which is slippery when wet. The best light is in the late afternoon.