Pywiack Dome is a prominent 600 foot

granite dome Granite domes are domical hills composed of granite with bare rock exposed over most of the surface. Generally, domical features such as these are known as bornhardts. Bornhardts can form in any type of plutonic rock but are typically composed ...

Yosemite National Park Yosemite National Park ( ) is an American national park in California, surrounded on the southeast by Sierra National Forest and on the northwest by Stanislaus National Forest. The park is managed by the National Park Service and covers an ...

, located north-east of Tenaya Lake, west of

Tuolumne Meadows Tuolumne Meadows () is a gentle, dome-studded, sub-alpine meadow area along the Tuolumne River in the eastern section of Yosemite National Park in the United States. Its approximate location is . Its approximate elevation is . The term ''Tuolumne Me ...

and from the

Tioga Road Tioga may refer to: United States communities *Tioga, California, former name of Bennettville, California *Tioga, Colorado *Tioga, Florida * Tioga, Iowa *Tioga, Louisiana *Tioga, New York, a town in Tioga County *Tioga County, New York, a county at ...

. It is quite near

Harlequin Dome Harlequin Dome is a granite dome, quite near Tenaya Lake, in the Tuolumne Meadows region of Yosemite National Park. Finding Harlequin Dome From the parking lot at Tenaya Lake, cross Highway 120, hike up slabs to a short headwall. Continue ...

, and

North North is one of the four compass points or cardinal directions. It is the opposite of south and is perpendicular to east and west. ''North'' is a noun, adjective, or adverb indicating direction or geography. Etymology The word ''no ...

and South Whizz Domes are north.

Josiah Whitney Josiah Dwight Whitney (November 23, 1819 – August 18, 1896) was an American geologist, professor of geology at Harvard University (from 1865), and chief of the California Geological Survey (1860–1874). Through his travels and studies in the ...

the head of

California Geological Survey The California Geological Survey, previously known as the California Division of Mines and Geology, is the California state geologic agency. History Although it was not until 1880 that the California State Mining Bureau, predecessor to the Calif ...

wrote in 1863 about Pywiack Dome in ''Geology'':

Climbing

Pywiack Dome - Climbers on Zee Tree - 02

The west face of the formation is popular with rock climbers and has several multi-pitch slab climbs easily visible from the

. Earliest was ''Dike Route'' a 6 pitch YDS 5.9R first climbed in August 1966 by Tom Gerughty, Roger Evje and Dave Meeks. Other popular climbs include Zee Tree (a 5 pitch YDS 5.7) and Aqua Knobby (a 4 pitch YDS 5.9)

Etymology

"Py-we-ack" in the native language means "glistening rocks", and the native people applied it to both the Tenaya Creek and Tenaya Lake, due to the abundance of glacial polish in the upper Tenaya basin. In 1932 the name "Pywiack" has applied to Pywiack Cascade. Pywiack Dome was known early by various names, including ''Murphy's Dome'', ''Teapot Dome'', ''Matthes Dome'', ''Ten-ieya Dome'', and ''Turtle Rock''. The name ''Pywiack Dome'' was recommended by

David Brower David Ross Brower (; July 1, 1912 – November 5, 2000) was a prominent environmentalist and the founder of many environmental organizations, including the John Muir Institute for Environmental Studies (1997), Friends of the Earth (1969), Earth ...

in the early 1950s, and first appeared on the 1956 15-minute quadrangle map.

Views

Tuolumne Meadows - Pywiack Dome summit looking SW - 5.jpg, South west panorama Tuolumne Meadows - Pywiack Dome sumit looking NE - 1.jpg, North east panorama

References

Granite domes of Yosemite National Park Mountains of Mariposa County, California Hills of California {{MariposaCountyCA-geo-stub