Angular bands of sun and shadow accentuate the fluted granite canyons along the south rim of Yosemite Valley, near Sentinel Rock. More...

According to Francis P. Farquhar's Place Names of the High Sierra (1926) the Whitney Survey references Sentinel Rock as being so-named “From its fancied likeness to a gigantic watch-tower..." In the map "Yosemite Valley" from Yosemite: Its Wonders and Its Beauties (1868) by John S. Hittell, the formation is labeled "Loya or Sentinel Rock" and in the text of the book Hittell says that Loya is the "Indian name" for Sentinel. But language is fluid, shaped by its surroundings, and as desribed in Discovery of the Yosemite (1892) by Dr. Lafayette H. Bunnell, Loya may have been a "corruption" of a Spanish word for a grinding mortar.

"As an illustration of corrupted Spanish that passes for Indian, the words Oya (olla) and Hoya, may be taken. Oya signifies a water pot, and Hoya, a pit hole. From these words the Mission Indians have formed 'Loya,' which is used to designate camp grounds where holes in the rocks may be found near, in which to pulverize acorns, grass seeds, as well as to the 'Sentinal Rock,' from its fancied resemblance to a water pot, or long water basket."

What better dwelling than the valley of the Yosemite, spacious and sun-filled, with art of the eons the walls.