Firefall

GALLERY

STORY

Yosemite Valley is always breathtaking, but for ten days a year and fifteen minutes each day the park houses a unique natural phenomenon called “Firefall.” Thousands of photographers and enthusiasts flock to the area to see “lava” flowing from Horsetail Falls - an optical illusion caused by sunlight striking the flowing water at just the right angle. Some years the effect is pronounced, glowing a deep orange. Other years it doesn’t happen at all. Unless you make a point of chasing it, it is typically a once-in-a-lifetime viewing, where you can easily come back empty handed.

As a quick preview, conditions were excellent and we got supremely lucky. This is the best shot I took. It really does look like lava!

Karen and I learned about this years ago, but with my newfound flexibility finally had the time to attend. We booked a room in Yosemite lodge, February being too cold to camp, and marked the date on the calendar. A couple of weeks before leaving our friend, Lauren Pey, learned about the event and wanted to join. The more the merrier - Lauren brings good vibes and we had enough beds for all.

I spent some time ahead of the trip researching hiking conditions in February - I’d only ever visited Yosemite in the summer, and figured that most of the trails would be snowed in to the point of needing ice axes and crampons. To my surprise the valley had experienced an abnormally mild winter so far, so many hikes remained open, but required micro-spikes towards the higher altitudes. I didn’t own any spikes and solved that problem with a quick trip to REI.

The ride in was easy. The girls both successfully worked from “home” in the car and we stopped for dinner at South Gate Brewing Company in Oakhurst - the last major town before hitting the west entrance. My expectations weren’t high going in but the bar seats were comfy, the burgers kicked ass, and the bartender made for interesting conversation. The only miss was the non-alcoholic beer I ordered, but that’s what I get for being on a health kick. I made a mental note to always stop here on the way in to the park, and we were back on our way.

Our reservation had been inexplicably moved from Yosemite Lodge to Curry Village, which is still in the valley but a different vibe. The change didn’t really bother me, but threw us off. We re-directed to Curry Village and checked in for the night, eager to get hiking in the morning.

YOSEMITE FALLS

We aren’t “bright and early” folks as compared to many outdoorsy people, so stumbled out of bed at 8:30 AM. I had characteristically over-packed fancy food and beverage, so fired up the JetBoil to make my French press of Rwandan light roast. Without my electric kettle I eyeballed 204 degrees, letting the water cool from 212 for an arbitrary amount of time before brewing. A little too hot - slightly burnt. I made a note for tomorrow and went on to prep yogurt parfaits for everyone, cutting fresh strawberries with my utility knife. The squad was in good spirits, but eager to get out onto the trails.

From the valley floor steep granite walls towered over us in every direction. The February air was crisp but not cold, and at low altitudes there were no signs of snow at all. I felt like we had gotten extremely lucky here, and knocked on the cabin wood for good juju before heading to the truck.

First stop along the way was the Ranger station - I wanted to hear first-hand which hikes were accessible and NPS personnel are always helpful. A poster inside of the station marked the chances of seeing firefall today as “high,” with heavy flow through the falls and mostly clear skies. Hell yeah. Karen and Lauren were excited to try a challenging hike, so we decided on Upper Yosemite Falls, a seven mile out and back with 3,200 feet of elevation gain.

The route is almost entirely switchbacks and feels like a natural stairmaster, winding up from the Camp 4 parking lot to the top of the valley. A quarter mile in we were all shedding layers, and by a half mile everyone was in T-shirts. Karen took the lead, enforcing a New-York-City walking pace that got the blood pumping. A mile in we hit Columbia Rock, the first rest point and one of the better views of half dome in the park. I helped a few others snap pics before marching on.

The stairmaster continued, guiding us past “Oh My Gosh Point” and Lower Yosemite Falls. Spray from the falls produced pockets of cool and warm weather, with signs of winter becoming more apparent the higher we climbed. A fifteen-foot snow drift marked the base of the falls - the mist turning straight to snow as it fell. I wondered if ski resort snow machines worked the same way.

“Guys I need a break”

The trail opened into a heavily exposed section, the mid-day sun bearing down on us. A nice couple snuck past and offered us sunscreen - they were brand ambarassadors of some sort and were over-stocked on free samples. We thanked them and caked on UV protection. Lauren picked up a chunk of ice from the trail,

“This can cool me down.”

Lauren and I both embraced the ice, wedging softball-sized pieces between our neck and backpack for some natural AC. It worked, and Lauren became fond of her ice companion.

“What’s it’s name?”

“Her name is Ice Spice, obviously.”

We were driven to get to the top before Ice Spice completely melted against her skin. The honorary spice girl gave her life for Lauren’s comfort, so it was the least we could do.

The last hundred feet of the trail was hard-packed snow. We debated pulling out the micro-spikes, but decided to tough it out instead, slipping and sliding up to the top. Ice Spice made it, and the view of the valley was stunning - we could see half dome, glacier point, the top of Yosemite Falls, and the valley floor underneath. I distributed sandwiches and we hung out for an hour, taking in the perfect weather and serene landscape.

Karen and I scrambled the last fifty feet down from our sandwich spot to get a better view of the falls. The vantage point didn’t give the view I was looking for - you had to go beyond the barriers to get a clean view of water flowing over the edge. A few braver patrons tried it - I followed the rules. The most interesting shot was of this rock formation just above the falls, a crooked-nosed old man jutting out from the valley wall.

The scenery was so cool and the vibes so good we over-stayed our timeline, and needed to double-time it down to get a spot to view firefall. We put on the spikes for the trip down, stopping only to admire this adorable snowman.

Karen is almost always right. As we were leaving the cabin in the morning she called out “should you just bring your tripod?” Given the hike was only seven miles I planned to come back and change before sunset, but took the twenty seconds to run back and grab my equipment anyways. I’m glad I did - after our leisurely lunch break we were forced to run the last half mile of our descent back to Camp 4, pushing past dozens of hikers along the way. I even encountered two black bears only fifty feet off-trail, but skipped out on a photoshoot to save time.

I pushed ahead of Karen and Lauren to grab everything from the truck. We were smart enough to park close to the firefall viewing area before the hike - NPS informed us that the lot typically fills up by 2 PM, and it was a mad house. I rifled through the truck as frustrated park-goers honked and offered to pay people for a space, desperate not to miss the main event.

I grabbed my gear and joined the crowd walking down Northside Drive, which had been trimmed down to one lane to accommodate the foot traffic. Hundreds of people, most carrying chairs and cameras, stepped in unison past El Capitan Meadow and on to any location with a clear view of Horsetail Falls. I could tell that most of the serious photographers had set up hours ago - the eastern-most location was packed tight with telephoto lenses and full frame cameras.

Karen found the final spot a few hundred yards west and we plopped down chairs. A dozen test shots later and I had the final image framed - a wide view of the falls with a single pine in the foreground. I could feel the crowd’s anticipation as we waited another twenty minutes for the action, the sun dipping lower into the sky.

Our neighbors gave us a quick tip, “You can see the orange in your phone camera before you see it with your eyes.” I aimed my iPhone at 3x zoom, and was surprised to see an upside-down American flag hanging down next to the falls. From this distance I thought “That must be huge,” and looked through a neighbor’s viewfinder to get the details. The crowd consensus was that it must have been a protest of some sort, and after a few minutes I sourced the story. The upside-down American flag is the “distress” signal in the US flag code, and the 30 foot by 50 foot flag had been draped by NPS employees in protest of the latest federal job cuts. Five minutes later we watched as climbers repelled to pull the flag back up and out of the way, in an effort to get their message across without destroying everyone’s photos. I didn’t have a long enough lens to get a photo of my own, so this photo is from the SF chronicle article:

“IT’S HAPPENING!” A child shouted.

The transition was slow and linear - orange hues creeping into the falls over the coming minutes. I was glued to my camera viewfinder, and started snapping shots at various settings. Ten minutes in the effect hit its peak - the water glowing fiery orange and red, as if it came straight out of a volcano. After a few dozen shots I stopped shooting to experience it live and unaltered. Cheers rang out from all directions. People hugged. Couples kissed. The mood was electric, and just when we thought it was dying down we’d get another pulse of color.

“That was so much better than yesterday.”

“Helllllllllllll yeah bro”

“Mom did you see!?!?!”

“Wowwwwwwwwwwieee wowwwww”

Human emotion was everywhere, and I felt lucky to be in that spot in that moment. Karen called me out,

“Look at his smile! You’re really cheese’ing over these photos”

I was cheesing, and could tell in just the image preview they were going to be good. Here are the final products and settings, for the photography nerds out there:

Camera: FujiFilm XT-5
Lens: XF 16-55mm F 2.8 R LM WR
Settings: 55 mm, 1/25 sec, f / 6.4, ISO 125

The effect tapered off as the sun lowered on the horizon, eventually returning to a standard grey palette. Karen, Lauren, and I slapped five - Yosemite nailed it on day one and we were there to witness.

NEVADA FALLS

The next morning we aspired to start early but failed. I didn’t burn the coffee, but we left the cabin at a leisurely 10:00 AM. The late start put everyone on edge and I wondered if we had enough time to hike to Nevada Falls before losing the light. Firefall logistics also added some complexity, but lava water isn’t something you want to miss. We drove over to Yosemite Lodge to get a parking spot early in the day. I snagged the closest spot I could to the exit - we wanted to make our escape right after the orange started to fade.

Public transit in the park is great - two bus routes hit all the major landmarks. We cruised from our parking spot at stop seven to stop fourteen, the cheery bus driver helping to distract me from the time.

Karen and I had both hiked Nevada Falls in the summer but this was Lauren’s first time. On paper the length and elevation gain are just as difficult as Upper Yosemite Falls, but in reality we found it to be more tame. The lead in to the hike is two miles of paved trail with easy access to the first viewpoint, a log bridge downstream from Vernal falls.

Huge boulders surrounded the trail, remnants of landslides over the years.

“You would be so dead if you got hit by one of those,” Lauren said.

I laughed it off, but ten minutes later chunks of ice rained down from a small avalanche up above. Nothing life threatening, but it would definitely hurt to get hit. I hid behind a boulder until it settled, but two British girls behind us were completely oblivious. A ball of ice the size of a grapefruit splattered across the granite one foot away. She yelped and dropped her phone - “Put your backpack above your head!” They didn’t listen and ran for cover as even larger chunks crashed and rolled by.

We warned a few hikers coming the other way on the way up, and could hear ice falling as we climbed higher. The trail eventually leveled out to Clark Point, a ridge across from a large granite dome (not half dome), with Nevada Falls in the distance.

Ice started to creep into the trail as we gained elevation. Karen motored forward, determined to get across to the (closed) Mist Trail. A mile later the rocks gave way to a clearing overlooking Vernal Falls from above. This was easily the best view on the trail. The falls roared, supercharged by snow melt on a seventy degree winter day. I leaned over as far as I safely could to get a few shots, mist flying up hundreds of feet to hit my face. I wanted a longer exposure to blur the water, so it took about a dozen shots to get one without water drops on the lens.

Karen and Lauren whipped out the salad, and I eventually joined them.

Karen has never been the rule-following type. Ten different signs along the way marked the Mist Trail as closed, but she was determined and wanted to cross the rope. Eight times out of ten this works out for us - she’s helped me access all sorts of places I thought were out of reach. Occasionally it doesn’t.

“I can see it! It looks like there’s no snow - we should go”

“I don’t want to cross any ropes. I feel like NPS doesn’t f*ck around about trail closures”

“It’ll be fine.”

A friendly solo hiker gave us the key info:

“The trail is closed for restoration. There was a huge rock slide - it isn’t passable.'“

Debate closed. We hiked back the way we came, past the falling ice, and back to the parking lot. The closure left us with extra time before firefall, so we stopped back at Curry Village to get pizza and beers. A cold Coors Light really hit the spot and sealed our hike.

NO DICE

The weather throughout the day was a real tease. We’d get thirty minutes of sun to raise our spirits between hours of clouds. The chances of a firefall viewing seemed low, so we gambled and decided to leave the park before the crowds. The gamble paid off - the cloud cover came back right before sunset, blocking any chance. We caught some good views of the valley on the way out and made our way back to Los Angeles, grateful to have seen Firefall one day.

Firefall

GALLERY

STORY

YOSEMITE FALLS

FIREFALL

NEVADA FALLS

NO DICE

Joshua Tree

Chris Mcpherson