Let the fire fall in Yosemite
February 18, 2020 8:09 AM Subscribe
In the summer of 1871 or 1872, James McCauley starting what would become a major draw to Yosemite for almost a hundred years: the fire fall (Firefall.info). It became a summer celebration, night after night, drawing hundreds, then thousands. The last fire fall was on Thursday, January 25, 1968, as the crowds were too big and too destructive to the natural setting. Huell Howser talked with people who were part of the firefalls in 1996 (Chapman University, with embedded video; in parts on YT: part 1, part 2, part 3, part 4), and at the end, he noted that there's a natural firefall in Yosemite, but it only happens for a few weeks in February. CBS This Morning has a segment on the natural illumination of Horsetail Falls (LA Times).
According to vague recollections and stories, on the 4th of July of 1871 or 1872, James McCauley, proprietor of the Mountain House hotel atop Glacier Point, pushed burning embers down a barren rock face (KCET). Or possibly in frustration that more people were not enjoying a campfire, he pushed the blaze off the cliff. This became a nightly display in the early 1900s, expanding include a big show in Camp Curry before the fire would fall, promptly at 9 PM (Sacramento Bee). (Well, until JFK was there, when he had it delayed to 9:30 so he could finish his dinner, but that was a one-off delay.) The view from Camp Curry is memorialized in vintage (style) posters, and here's a short, watermarked video of a firefall from the 1960s.
In 1964, Congress designated about 89 percent of Yosemite as wilderness, and was "hereby recognized as an area where the earth and its community of life are untrammeled by man, where man himself is a visitor who does not remain" (National Park Service). The annual number of visitors passed two million in 1967 (National Parked), and the firefall was was deemed to be inconsistent with park values.
More recently, people noticed* that something special happens for around a week each year – well, actually, twice a year (as the light also occurs in October, but there’s usually one required element missing). As the sun sets at one particular angle, the western face of El Capitan blocks most of the warm glowing light, except for a tiny slither that creeps around onto Horsetail Falls and nowhere else before disappearing into nightfall. Combine that with a flowing stream of water, and you have a naturally occurring appearance of the modern day “firefall” (Paul Reiffer).
* The story goes that Horsetail Fall was discovered by a hiker/rock climber named Galen Rowell in 1973. He noticed that at just the right time, in just the right month, it would light up so brilliantly that it looked like a firefall. He and his buddies were on the Manure Trail or somesuch when they discovered it, so they jokingly named it Horsetail Fall. They didn’t tell anyone, though, and it remained unknown. Eventually Rowell shared a photo, and it made the rounds of Yosemite insiders. Then social media exploded, and now everyone knows about Horsetail Fall.
Kevin Drum asks on Mother Jones, Why did no one notice Horsetail Firefall effect before 1973? Drum notes that you can see Horsetail Fall from the main road exiting the park. Thousands of people have seen it every year for the past century, including a famous photographer or two, including Ansel Adams, who photographed El Capitan Fall in 1959, but it looks like it was a daytime photo, not shot at dusk. Drum posits that because Horsetail is an ephemeral fall, and it appears only in winter and spring, beginning when the snowpack starts to melts, it might have melted later in prior years (and it's not flowing in October).
If you want to go this year or next, Aaron Meyers provide some details for 2020 that should still be fairly accurate for the next year or two. But it could be crowded. A recent Guardian article calls it "a photo orgy." If you want to enjoy the work of others, here's Firefall tagged photos Instagram, and a search for Yosemite Firefall on Flickr.
According to vague recollections and stories, on the 4th of July of 1871 or 1872, James McCauley, proprietor of the Mountain House hotel atop Glacier Point, pushed burning embers down a barren rock face (KCET). Or possibly in frustration that more people were not enjoying a campfire, he pushed the blaze off the cliff. This became a nightly display in the early 1900s, expanding include a big show in Camp Curry before the fire would fall, promptly at 9 PM (Sacramento Bee). (Well, until JFK was there, when he had it delayed to 9:30 so he could finish his dinner, but that was a one-off delay.) The view from Camp Curry is memorialized in vintage (style) posters, and here's a short, watermarked video of a firefall from the 1960s.
In 1964, Congress designated about 89 percent of Yosemite as wilderness, and was "hereby recognized as an area where the earth and its community of life are untrammeled by man, where man himself is a visitor who does not remain" (National Park Service). The annual number of visitors passed two million in 1967 (National Parked), and the firefall was was deemed to be inconsistent with park values.
More recently, people noticed* that something special happens for around a week each year – well, actually, twice a year (as the light also occurs in October, but there’s usually one required element missing). As the sun sets at one particular angle, the western face of El Capitan blocks most of the warm glowing light, except for a tiny slither that creeps around onto Horsetail Falls and nowhere else before disappearing into nightfall. Combine that with a flowing stream of water, and you have a naturally occurring appearance of the modern day “firefall” (Paul Reiffer).
* The story goes that Horsetail Fall was discovered by a hiker/rock climber named Galen Rowell in 1973. He noticed that at just the right time, in just the right month, it would light up so brilliantly that it looked like a firefall. He and his buddies were on the Manure Trail or somesuch when they discovered it, so they jokingly named it Horsetail Fall. They didn’t tell anyone, though, and it remained unknown. Eventually Rowell shared a photo, and it made the rounds of Yosemite insiders. Then social media exploded, and now everyone knows about Horsetail Fall.
Kevin Drum asks on Mother Jones, Why did no one notice Horsetail Firefall effect before 1973? Drum notes that you can see Horsetail Fall from the main road exiting the park. Thousands of people have seen it every year for the past century, including a famous photographer or two, including Ansel Adams, who photographed El Capitan Fall in 1959, but it looks like it was a daytime photo, not shot at dusk. Drum posits that because Horsetail is an ephemeral fall, and it appears only in winter and spring, beginning when the snowpack starts to melts, it might have melted later in prior years (and it's not flowing in October).
If you want to go this year or next, Aaron Meyers provide some details for 2020 that should still be fairly accurate for the next year or two. But it could be crowded. A recent Guardian article calls it "a photo orgy." If you want to enjoy the work of others, here's Firefall tagged photos Instagram, and a search for Yosemite Firefall on Flickr.
Your allposters link ("vintage") is blocked for "international" visitors (just like your visas and airports)
posted by Mrs Potato at 8:30 AM on February 18, 2020
posted by Mrs Potato at 8:30 AM on February 18, 2020
Weird, sorry! Here's a mirrored picture.
posted by filthy light thief at 8:40 AM on February 18, 2020 [1 favorite]
posted by filthy light thief at 8:40 AM on February 18, 2020 [1 favorite]
This is great and I didn't really know about it. The optical phenomenon of the present day firefall is so cool.
posted by LobsterMitten at 8:54 AM on February 18, 2020
posted by LobsterMitten at 8:54 AM on February 18, 2020
"A bit crowded" is a tragic understatement. I was there over the weekend and it was a total LA style traffic shit show. It took us 3 hours to get out of the valley and back to my house which is 12 miles from the entrance. We heard from some people parked even further back that they'd been waiting for hours longer than us. We also spoke with a ranger who said it was so busy last year when Horsetail fall was actually running that onlookers collapsed a bank of the Merced. It really highlights the sad inability of the park in its current conception to deal with the amount of visitors it gets. They didn't even have the shuttle running to the stop you'd need to go to view it.
All this being said, even without seeing the firefall specifically, it's beautiful there right now. The best way to think of this is as a Manhattan-henge esque phenomenon so it illuminates the entire length of the valley, Horsetail falls simply being the most notable thing to look at.
posted by feloniousmonk at 8:54 AM on February 18, 2020 [6 favorites]
All this being said, even without seeing the firefall specifically, it's beautiful there right now. The best way to think of this is as a Manhattan-henge esque phenomenon so it illuminates the entire length of the valley, Horsetail falls simply being the most notable thing to look at.
posted by feloniousmonk at 8:54 AM on February 18, 2020 [6 favorites]
this is the posting that i've always dreamed of
i knew it from the start
posted by freecellwizard at 8:55 AM on February 18, 2020 [12 favorites]
i knew it from the start
posted by freecellwizard at 8:55 AM on February 18, 2020 [12 favorites]
The discussion of how the image in the first link was created is interesting- originally shot as a double exposure in 1963 with a Stereo Realist, which meant there were two photos in the stereoview slide that were used for reconstructing the digital image.
posted by zamboni at 8:58 AM on February 18, 2020 [1 favorite]
posted by zamboni at 8:58 AM on February 18, 2020 [1 favorite]
Damn, freecellwizard beat me to it.
posted by humboldt32 at 9:03 AM on February 18, 2020
posted by humboldt32 at 9:03 AM on February 18, 2020
a hiker/rock climber named Galen Rowell in 1973
That seems an odd framing for someone who subsequently had a very successful career as a wilderness photographer.
posted by Slothrup at 9:13 AM on February 18, 2020 [3 favorites]
That seems an odd framing for someone who subsequently had a very successful career as a wilderness photographer.
posted by Slothrup at 9:13 AM on February 18, 2020 [3 favorites]
Slothrup, I'll admit I didn't do my due diligence and pulled that bit straight from the source article. Here's a brief Wikipedia article on him, and here's a gallery of work by him and his wife Barbara. The site seems a bit buggy at the moment, but you can browse this Internet Archive copy, where you can find a stunning picture of the Last light on Horsetail Fall.
feloniousmonk: "A bit crowded" is a tragic understatement.
Thanks for that warning.
posted by filthy light thief at 9:24 AM on February 18, 2020
feloniousmonk: "A bit crowded" is a tragic understatement.
Thanks for that warning.
posted by filthy light thief at 9:24 AM on February 18, 2020
I was there over the weekend and it was a total LA style traffic shit show. It took us 3 hours to get out of the valley and back to my house which is 12 miles from the entrance.
Yosemite at the various peak times is the classic "no one goes there, it's too crowded" situation. The place is stunning but yea, people, yeesh.
posted by GuyZero at 10:19 AM on February 18, 2020
Yosemite at the various peak times is the classic "no one goes there, it's too crowded" situation. The place is stunning but yea, people, yeesh.
posted by GuyZero at 10:19 AM on February 18, 2020
"A bit crowded"
Sums up neatly why I've spent a lifetime avoiding all those much-beloved sites that are supposedly "must see" destinations. I'll miss out on most of the world's must-sees, even if I win the lottery and get another fifty years tacked onto my life expectancy, so passing up the ones that require slogging through a sea of unhappy children, harried adults, muddy parking lots, and sharing a portapotty with four hundred other people is pretty easy. Besides, better photographers than me have taken nice pictures that I can enjoy from a safe distance.
posted by sonascope at 10:23 AM on February 18, 2020 [1 favorite]
Sums up neatly why I've spent a lifetime avoiding all those much-beloved sites that are supposedly "must see" destinations. I'll miss out on most of the world's must-sees, even if I win the lottery and get another fifty years tacked onto my life expectancy, so passing up the ones that require slogging through a sea of unhappy children, harried adults, muddy parking lots, and sharing a portapotty with four hundred other people is pretty easy. Besides, better photographers than me have taken nice pictures that I can enjoy from a safe distance.
posted by sonascope at 10:23 AM on February 18, 2020 [1 favorite]
I wouldn't let the crowds at Yosemite discourage you entirely. It's just not necessarily a good day trip. If you want to see the park, you should probably stay in it, either at one of the various campsites or cabins or the bigger hotels. It is really unfortunate that it's so bad in the park at times because if you're the kind of person who sees the spiritual in nature, Yosemite Valley truly is one of our great cathedrals. Even when it's at peak, if you're parked and set, you can find yourself away from the crowds pretty quickly, especially outside of the valley in other areas of the park.
If you do really want to see firefall, my advice is to bring bikes or be ready for a bit of a hike, get there early, and park before you hit the special closure area for horsestail fall. You will then avoid effectively all of the traffic. I'm guessing next year they'll run the El Capitan shuttle for it, though, which will also help quite a bit.
posted by feloniousmonk at 10:41 AM on February 18, 2020 [2 favorites]
If you do really want to see firefall, my advice is to bring bikes or be ready for a bit of a hike, get there early, and park before you hit the special closure area for horsestail fall. You will then avoid effectively all of the traffic. I'm guessing next year they'll run the El Capitan shuttle for it, though, which will also help quite a bit.
posted by feloniousmonk at 10:41 AM on February 18, 2020 [2 favorites]
I grew up in CA and remember Mom and Dad taking my brothers and I to see Yosemite and the Sequoias in the early 60s. We watched the firefall and also went to see the bears feeding (another practice that was thankfully ended). I went back to backpack in 1986 and the experience was magical and re-affirmed my love of the outdoors. But now I’m not sure I’ll ever go back.
A few years ago, a buddy and I went out to Zion in late October and it was packed. All the trails were full of lines of people walking them. And the g**damn selfie sticks were everywhere. A ranger I talked to said it was like this all year long.
I think that people should be able to not only see these beautiful places, but also experience the nature. I’m not sure providing more roads, buses and easier trails is good for either the visitor or the health of the park’s ecosystem.
We are loving our most beautiful places to death. Like the firefall or feeding the bears was destructive, we’ve replaced those problems with over tourism and development.
posted by jabo at 11:35 AM on February 18, 2020
A few years ago, a buddy and I went out to Zion in late October and it was packed. All the trails were full of lines of people walking them. And the g**damn selfie sticks were everywhere. A ranger I talked to said it was like this all year long.
I think that people should be able to not only see these beautiful places, but also experience the nature. I’m not sure providing more roads, buses and easier trails is good for either the visitor or the health of the park’s ecosystem.
We are loving our most beautiful places to death. Like the firefall or feeding the bears was destructive, we’ve replaced those problems with over tourism and development.
posted by jabo at 11:35 AM on February 18, 2020
Rather annoying to me as I 'just' missed the last one, happening on my birthday three years earlier, not reaching Yosemite myself until the summer of '71.
But hey, you want to see the real Firefall, right? How about with a little Bogart, in uniform, and in Technicolor? Don't forget his ball-bearings, and especially, the strawberries. Yes, it's The Caine Mutiny from 1954 which has a scene in Yosemite featuring it. What are sailors doing in Yosemite? During the war, the Navy took over the Ahwahnee, converting it into a hospital. According to that page, "Park historians believe that the Firefall scene from 'The Caine Mutiny' may be the best film footage of the Firefall ever made" even though it's only shown for a few seconds.
posted by Rash at 8:08 PM on February 18, 2020
But hey, you want to see the real Firefall, right? How about with a little Bogart, in uniform, and in Technicolor? Don't forget his ball-bearings, and especially, the strawberries. Yes, it's The Caine Mutiny from 1954 which has a scene in Yosemite featuring it. What are sailors doing in Yosemite? During the war, the Navy took over the Ahwahnee, converting it into a hospital. According to that page, "Park historians believe that the Firefall scene from 'The Caine Mutiny' may be the best film footage of the Firefall ever made" even though it's only shown for a few seconds.
posted by Rash at 8:08 PM on February 18, 2020
A naval hospital that's 200 miles from the coast is not something I expected to learn about here
posted by GuyZero at 3:44 PM on February 19, 2020
posted by GuyZero at 3:44 PM on February 19, 2020
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Some changes to traffic patterns, parking, and visitor access will be in effect each afternoon February 13–27. Expect traffic delays if exiting Yosemite Valley around sunset.
posted by filthy light thief at 8:10 AM on February 18, 2020