Cathedral Spires (V15)
A rugged collection of cliffs, buttresses, and pinnacles on the south side of Yosemite Valley.
Guide Sections
Use Cathedral Spires (V15)'s guide sections to understand how this stop fits into the larger park plan.
Cathedral Spires (V15) Details
Difficulty
Low
Distance
N/A
Estimated time
Region
Yosemite Valley
The Cathedral Spires receive their name from steeple-like rock formations. The left spire is a towering 1,900 feet and the right is 200 feet higher. (By comparison, the highest church steeple, located at the Ulm Minster Lutheran Church in Ulm, Germany, is only 530 feet.) By the 1870s, all of the main peaks in and around Yosemite Valley had been climbed except for these two. It wasn't until 1933 and 1934 that the two spires were successfully summited by a Sierra Club party made up of Jules Eichorn, Bestor Robinson, and Richard Leonard. Roadside marker: V15