Photographer captures phenomenal annual “firefall” in Yosemite

For a short time every February, the sunset hits the water at Horsetail Falls just right, making the waterfall look like it’s on fire. And now you can see it by watching the video above. But park rangers say it’s actually the sun glowing through a waterfall.

“For only two weeks a year, if the conditions are just right, the setting sunlight will illuminate the falls in a way that makes it resemble flowing lava”, said Vincent James, the photographer who captured this memorizing image. “For 10 minutes, all of us sat there mesmerized by this spectacle”. Then, temperatures have to be warm enough for the snow to melt and fall 1,570 feet down the eastern face of the rock formation during the brief window of time the sun is in position. “When it ended, a few of us had tears in our eyes”.

Photographer Sangeeta Dey wanted to capture the beauty, and on her Instagram account wrote that she found a spot under a thorny bush at 2 p.m. a few days ago and waited for the sun to set.

The website also states that the phenomenon is typically the most stunning during middle to late February.

Serendipitously, therefore, it was in 1973 that the first known photo of the natural firefall was taken by photographer Galen Rowell. It became an annual event that increased in size and popularity, until it was finally discontinued in 1968.