At some point in the Winter of 2010 I saw my first shot of the firefall effect on Horsetail Fall in Yosemite. It may very well have been on 500px and at first glance, I thought I was looking at lava pouring off a cliff in a forest. Intrigued, I read the description and was stunned to find out that this was happening during the last two weeks of February every year from a small waterfall that was located somewhere around El Capitan.
So the following Winter, I set off during late February to see
Continue reading “Why I Won’t Be Photographing The Firefall In 2020 (New Restrictions Below)” »
I just got back after spending two weeks shooting some fairly heavy snow storms in Yosemite. I hope to have a blog post at some point in the next couple of weeks, but in the mean time, I wanted to give an update on the Horsetail situation for 2019.
When Galen Rowell took his now infamous shot of the Horsetail Fall effect in February of 1973 there may have been a few people around gazing at the falls, but it was primarily Galen and a single Ranger who were standing in just the right spot. Last year, literally thousands of people
UPDATE – FEBRUARY 2020 – The NPS has announced a rather draconian step in shutting down the entire South Side Viewing area for the last two weeks of February in 2020 due to the actions of some careless photographers who trashed the area last year. No cars will be allowed to park or drop off passengers between the El Cap cut off and Swinging Bridge. It is still unclear if the NPS will allow photographers to fan out on the North side or to explore along the river bank between the South Side and the North in areas that provide a view of the Fall, but trying to cram the expected onslaught of 2000 photographers into the El Cap Picnic area seems like a spectacularly bad idea. Additionally, there will be no parking down near the El Cap Picnic area other than those with handicapped plates. Everyone will need to walk upwards of 1.5 miles down and back from parking areas East of Yosemite Lodge. If you are planning to shoot the Firevall this year, bring lots of patience and get there early. The hundreds of photographers who poured into the South side last year will now be forced to come North and no one really knows if everyone will have a view if and when the fall lights up. 
After several years of drought here in California, we are finally having a true rainy season this year. Over the past few weeks, a series of storms rolled through our state providing much needed water for our reservoirs and snow in our local mountains and the Sierras. All of this extra moisture has caused some problems for the park rangers in Yosemite who had to close the park twice in one month due to flooding concerns as well as rockslides due to the heavy rainfall. Having to deal with tire cables, road closures and delays on my two recent trips to Yosemite were definitely a pain, but the opportunities that were waiting for me when I arrived were just too good to pass up.
Over two years ago, I mentioned to my hiking buddy Tom Bricker that I was interested in finding some alternate locations to shoot in Yosemite as we were beginning to shoot the same locations over and over on our frequent visits. By that point, we had already been up the Four Mile Trail, Olmsted Point and out to Cathedral Lakes, but we began to look for other locations that were a bit more off of the beaten path.
The snowfall this Winter is already off to a much better start in Yosemite National Park. Last year, it barely snowed at all and when it did, only a couple of inches fell in the valley. This year, the fourth snowfall in the valley is due to arrive this afternoon giving the park it’s first White Christmas in several years.
