Natural wonders: The fire fall of Yosemite Park

Every year, for a few days in the last two weeks of February, in Yosemite Park a bizarre natural phenomenon but nonetheless quite amazing occurs when the waters of the Horsetail fall flow, coming off the El Capitan mountain in two distinct streams and dropping some 1570 feet onto steep slabs spraying up in a mist before continuing down another 500 feet to the bottom of the mountain.

Because of this beautiful phenomenon, the Horsetail fall is also known as the “fire fall”, when, as the sun sets and the darkness falls from around the horizon, the last speck of sunlight will hit and reflect off the fall at an angle that creates the effect of a flowing fluid fire cascade.

This beautiful effect lasts only shortly and actually, it is not as unique as people might actually think it is. In the 1880’s crowds of tourist gathered in Yosemite Park to witness the “fire falls”, created by pushing huge piles of coals off the edge of a cliff but this form of entertainment stopped during the 1960’s because of the obvious fire hazard. Now, the nature does all the work and you can be sure that seeing the highest fully-airborne waterfall in Yosemite Park turn into a luminescent fiery fall is quite a spectacular sight which should not be missed if you ever get the chance.11