[2] The Valley provides access to nearby destinations such as the back side of Half Dome, Clouds Rest and the High Sierra Camp at Merced Lake.

These rocks were thus subject to tremendous gravitational and flow forces yet retain a remarkable degree of integrity, eroding almost exclusively and superficially along exfoliation joints.

The west end and south wall of the canyon are "exceptionally massive, few cliffs anywhere in the Yosemite region exhibit a more complete absence of fractures.

A smaller, mesa-like dome called Mount Broderick stands immediately adjacent to Liberty Cap.

[5] The south western margin of Moraine Dome is wrapped by a broad, striped granite apron with an approximately 40° slope that appears to rise some 500 ft (152 m) from the valley floor.

Although Sugar Loaf Dome has been repeatedly subject to glaciation, the core of this spur has resisted the icy onslaughts because what remains today is massive throughout except for one master joint, horizontal in character.

[3] Cascade Fall at 37°44′11.32″N 119°28′53.13″W / 37.7364778°N 119.4814250°W / 37.7364778; -119.4814250, elevation 6,225 ft (1,897 m) AMSL tumbles via a water wheel over the glacially polished granite saddle between Sugar Loaf and Bunnell Point into a delightful pool at the eastern head of Little Yosemite Valley.

Cascade Cliffs is a wall of unjointed granite that rises to 8,170 ft (2,490 m) AMSL, 1,930 ft (588 m) above the Merced River and make up the southern wall of Little Yosemite Valley at 37°43′27.73″N 119°29′13.56″W / 37.7243694°N 119.4871000°W / 37.7243694; -119.4871000, 1.6 mi (3 km) southwest of Bunnell Point and 2.4 mi (4 km) northeast of Mount Starr King, of which Cascade Cliffs comprises the northern flank.

Only one horizontal master joint divides the rock (in the lower left) The scales on the cliffs are merely surficial features due to exfoliation.

The dark streaks indicate the paths followed by the ribbon cascades which descend from the upland in the spring, when the snow is melting, and from which the cliffs take their name.