Horsetail Falls (Yosemite National Park, California, USA)

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Horsetail Falls

Horsetail Falls in its natural firefall state

Horsetail Falls was made famous by the late Galen Rowell in his "Natural Firefall" photograph (even though Ansel Adams did document this waterfall in his signature black-and-white landscape photos). Since then, Yosemite visitors (myself included) have tried to duplicate Rowell's efforts to no avail.

When I tried to capture the firefall effect on a winter Yosemite trip, I was amused to see large groups of fellow photographers waiting patiently for the same thing I was looking for. It almost felt like I stumbled upon a secret society of photographers waiting for some divine event to occur. Apparently no password was needed to join them :) The photograph shown above is my best attempt so far.

To maximize your likelihood of seeing the falls in its firefall state, you'll need two things to work for you. One, the falls needs to be flowing. This generally occurs when the snowpack above El Capitan is melting (which can be as early as December or January but is strongest in the March-April timeframe). Two, the sun needs to set in the right position to make the falls' profile glow red. This occurs around January until the last week of February. To get the best of both worlds (i.e. flow and light), you'll want to be here in February assuming the weather cooperates.

By the way, the firefall was a spectacle that took place back in Yosemite's early days. It consisted of people getting up to Glacier Point, setting dead branches on fire, and throwing them over the cliff to the valley over a thousand feet below. Obviously this delighted summer holiday-makers at what was then Camp Curry (now Curry Village). But eventually this practice was discontinued as it didn't fit the National Park principle of natural beauty.

Directions: The spot from where I took the photograph you see above can be reached by driving around 1.7 miles west of Yosemite Lodge on Northside Drive. Since the pullouts and picnic area car parks aren't signposted and the Northside Drive is usually one-way going west, you really have to watch your odometer and stay on the slow lane as you look for a suitable parking spot.

There are also other pullouts along this unsigned stretch of road yielding views of Horsetail Falls above and between pine trees, but once again since the road is one-way, it’s worth slowing down and not being too picky about where you're parking because you might end up driving a large loop just to get back to this point.

Below are some photos of the ephemeral waterfall in its non-firefall state - which you're more likely to encounter if you happen to see it.

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Horsetail Falls without the firefall effect No firefall effect in this photo, but it certainly looks ghostly.

The wispy Horsetail Falls in morning light The wispy waterfall in morning light

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