Yosemite Firefall

Glacier Point Firefall

Ralph Crane - Life Magazine Archives

N37 43.831 W119 34.453

 “We’re going to see the Firefall,” my Father announced one night during my first visit to Yosemite in 1963.  The family piled into our white Ford station wagon, drove a few miles from The Lodge to a bridge below Glacier Point.  I remember there being crowds of people in all directions, their cars jamming the narrow roads, and their mood loud and boisterous.  I could see the glow of the bonfire high up on Glacier Point.  At precisely 9:00, the fire slowly cascaded over the cliff, down the side of the valley accompanied by loud ‘Ooh’s and Ah’s’ from the crowd.

The Yosemite Fire fall was a summer tradition in Yosemite Valley from 1872 until 1968 (with a few interruptions). A giant bonfire of red fir bark was built on the edge of the cliff on Glacier Point, near the Glacier Point Hotel.  Down below, at Curry Village, a large crowd would gather at the amphitheater for the evening’s ranger presentation.  At 9:00, the Firefall Caller would bellow “Hello, Glacier Point.”  A tiny voice from above would reply “hello, camp curry.”  The Caller would yell with great pomp “Let the Fire Fall.”  Up at the point, employees would push the bonfire embers over the edge with long-handled metal rakes.  The effect from below was a long “waterfall” of fire falling almost 3000 ft.  As the fire fell, Camp Curry visitors would sing old-time Yosemite favorites like “Indian Love Call.” The Yosemite firefall can be seen in the 1954 film The Caine Mutiny.

The firefall is a fine example of how the National Parks were treated like amusement parks during much of the 20^th century.  Visitors could drive through the Wawona Tunnel Tree, an ancient Sequoia tree in Mariposa Grove that had a hole cut through it (my family has a picture of that same white wagon parked inside it with us kids hanging out the windows).  They parked their cars in the meadows and scratched their names on the trees.  At the hotels, there was tennis, golf, swimming, ice skating, and tobogganing. By the 60’s, traffic and campfires produced thick smog that hung in the air during the summer obscuring the view. Meadows were trampled and trash was everywhere.  But the growing popularity of Yosemite combined with the Disneyland mentality of the visitors, which I witnessed that evening in 1963, finally forced the National Park Service to make some changes.  The Fire Falls was discontinued in 1968 because the NPS said it was man-made and detracted from the natural beauty of the valley.  The Glacier Point Hotel burned down the following year and was never rebuilt.  The Tunnel Tree fell over during the winter of 1969, highlighting the need for conservation and protection of Yosemite’s treasures. The 70’s saw a growing movement toward greater respect for Yosemite.  Many of the more touristy attractions were scaled back or eliminated.  Mirror Lake was no longer dredged and has slowly become Mirror Meadow.  Butane-powered trams were introduced to encourage visitors to leave their cars at the campsite.  The Valley’s two-way roads became a one-way loop. The road to Mirror Lake and Happy Isles as well as the Mariposa Loop road were closed to cars entirely.  The gas station near Yosemite Falls was removed.  The smog cleared.

So is that the end of the Firefall story?  Yes and no.  If you search google images for ‘yosemite firefall’, you will see old pictures of the Glacier Point Firefall.  But you also get the many images of a firey waterfall, often labeled ‘Yosemite firefall.’  The pictures are of Horsetail Fall, east of El Capitan, during a few days in February when the setting sun makes it glow red.  I don’t know how this phenomenon became known as the new firefall but perhaps the ghost of the old firefall lives on with this new identity.

Horsetail Falls at Winter sunset

N37 43.861 W119 37.688

Question of the Day: There used to be a sideroad from Glacier Point Road that led to an enormous parking lot at Sentinel Dome.  What was the "attraction" and what happened to it?