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United States United States cliff

Obsidian Cliff

You can see 33 km from here, looking north.

Calculating the panorama…

Drag to turn around. The relief is drawn 2.2 times taller so the ridges can be read; far ridges are paler, as in the real air.

The view

Up to 33 km away.

Calculated on the relief one degree at a time, up to 250 km, with the curvature of the Earth and the refraction of the air: what stands above the horizon from here.

46out of 100

Our own rating, from the relief and the climate only: open horizon (35 points), how far you see (25), sea and named peaks in view (20) and clear months (20).

  • 33 kmFarthest ridgelooking north
  • 90%Open horizonof the circle where the horizon is below your eyes
  • 3Peaks in viewnamed summits that rise above the relief in front
  • 2,319 mAltitudeabove the sea, at the highest point of the viewpoint

The 3 peaks you can name from here

From west to east as you turn around: height, distance and direction. Each one links to its guide on Peakyas, our mountain atlas.

From the relief only: buildings, trees and haze are not in the model. On a hazy day you see much less; 250 km is the limit of our calculation.

The sun

The best sunsets are from July to August.

When the sun really disappears from this viewpoint — behind the relief or into the sea — and in which direction, on the 15th of each month, in local time.

  1. Jansouth-west22 min before the sea-level sunset29%
  2. Febwest26 min before the sea-level sunset29%
  3. Marwest28 min before the sea-level sunset26%
  4. Aprwest46 min before the sea-level sunset28%
  5. Maywest56 min before the sea-level sunset30%
  6. Junnorth-west60 min before the sea-level sunset41%
  7. Julwest58 min before the sea-level sunset60%
  8. Augwest52 min before the sea-level sunset57%
  9. Sepwest36 min before the sea-level sunset52%
  10. Octwest26 min before the sea-level sunset36%
  11. Novsouth-west22 min before the sea-level sunset30%
  12. Decsouth-west24 min before the sea-level sunset28%
  • Time: when the sun goes behind the horizon you see from here.
  • Minutes: how much earlier the relief hides the sun.
  • %: share of clear sky that month (NASA, 2001–2020).

The highlighted months are the clearest. Golden hour starts about an hour before.

The place

Obsidian Cliff.

Archaeological site

Obsidian Cliff is a cliff in United States, 2,319 m above the sea.

On a clear day the farthest ridge you can see is 33 km away, looking north.

3 named peaks rise above the relief in front; the most prominent is Bunsen Peak (2,610 m), 12 km away.

The horizon is open, below your eyes, over 90% of the circle.

The skies are clearest from July to August.

Obsidian Cliff YNP1
Acroterion · CC BY-SA 4.0

Get there and stay

Plan the visit

A guided tour, a bed nearby, a car.

Some links above are affiliate links: if you book through them we may earn a commission, at no extra cost to you. It never changes what the data on this page says.

From above

The viewpoint and its surroundings.

The satellite image of the 6 × 6 km around the viewpoint, with what OpenStreetMap shows nearby.

Obsidian Cliff seen from above (Sentinel-2)
Seen from above: Sentinel-2 cloudless 2016 (EOX, CC BY 4.0), 6 × 6 km, north up. Points © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Around, in OpenStreetMap

  • 2other viewpoints within 5 kmRoaring Mountain
  • 3named peaks within 5 kmHorseshoe Hill, Roaring Mountain, The Landmark
  • 20car parks within 3 km
  • 7campsites within 10 kmWinter Creek North, Straight Creek South, Winter Creek and 4 more
  • cable car and funicular stations within 5 km
  • marked trails within 3 km
  • shelters and huts within 5 km
  • visitor centres within 5 km
  • restaurants and cafés within 3 km
  • places to stay within 10 km

Counted in OpenStreetMap, the map anyone can edit. A low number may just mean nobody has mapped it yet.

In our other atlases

What you see from Obsidian Cliff, and what is near.

Everything around this viewpoint — mountains, water, forests, birds, caves and the night sky — in the family's atlases.

Peakyas39 mountains within 25 km
Antler Peak3,067 m · 10 kmMount Holmes3,150 m · 10 kmQuadrant Mountain3,034 m · 12 kmBannock Peak3,137 m · 14 kmGray Peak3,139 m · 18 kmJoseph Peak3,176 m · 20 kmElectric Peak3,341 m · 22 kmMount Washburn3,122 m · 23 km
Lakeyas3 lakes within 15 km
Grizzly Lake0.6 km² · 4.1 kmSwan Lake0.2 km² · 11 kmIce Lake0.2 km² · 14 km
Darkskyas2 dark-sky places within 30 km
Golden Gate CanyonBortle 2 · 13 kmGrand Canyon of the YellowstoneBortle 1 · 22 km
Canyonyas1 canyons within 20 km
Golden Gate Canyon · 15 km
Cascadyas3 waterfalls within 15 km
Osprey Falls · 12 kmRustic Falls · 13 kmVirginia Cascades · 14 km

Figures from the sister sites' databases (Wikidata, HydroATLAS, GeoNames, OpenStreetMap, GBIF). Links open when each site is online.

Photographs

The view, as people saw it.

Obsidian Cliff kiosk YNP1
Acroterion · CC BY-SA 4.0
Details of Obsidian Cliff (4e5e0304-45e9-446e-ae01-71dbdb294187)
Jacob W. Frank · Public domain
Fresh spring snow on Obsidian Cliff (51195283645)
YellowstoneNPS · Public domain

Other viewpoints nearby.

Obsidian Cliff

United States

  • 46Viewyas Score
  • 33 kmFarthest ridge
  • 3Peaks in view
  • 2,319 mAltitude

Sheepeater Cliff

United States · 13 km

  • 54Viewyas Score
  • 61 kmFarthest ridge
  • 9Peaks in view
  • 2,180 mAltitude

See the guide

Inspiration Point

United States · 23 km

  • 54Viewyas Score
  • 22 kmFarthest ridge
  • 11Peaks in view
  • 2,392 mAltitude

See the guide

Devil's Slide

United States · 31 km

  • 55Viewyas Score
  • 52 kmFarthest ridge
  • 9Peaks in view
  • 1,996 mAltitude

See the guide

Where these figures come from

Name and typeWikidata (Q949701) · CC0
SunJ. Meeus, Astronomical Algorithms
Peaks in viewPeakyas (Wikidata, CC0)
Panorama and altitudeCopernicus DEM GLO-90 / GLO-30 · © DLR e.V., © Airbus Defence and Space GmbH, Copernicus/ESA
CloudsNASA POWER (CERES SYN1deg, 2001–2020; MERRA-2)
What is around© OpenStreetMap contributors · ODbL
ImagesEOX Sentinel-2 cloudless 2016 · CC BY 4.0; Wikimedia Commons
Sister atlasesPeakyas, Lakeyas, Darkskyas, Canyonyas, Cascadyas

Every figure is an average, an estimate or a count from a public dataset. Licences and methods: data sources.

The family

Do you prefer beaches, lakes, mountains, waterfalls, islands, rivers, canyons, caves, dark skies, viewpoints, birdwatching or forests?

Same idea, other landscapes: field atlases built on open data, in seven languages.