Yosemite ‘firefall’ glows for limited time in February

A thin ephemeral waterfall in Yosemite National Park that’s barely noticed by many visitors to the popular Yosemite Valley becomes the California park’s star attraction each February.

Horsetail Fall over the eastern edge of El Capitan can glow golden or orange at sunset from mid- to late-February when its water is flowing and skies are clear.

Illumination from the setting sun causes this phenomenon, what’s become known as the firefall.

For older visitors, it can be reminiscent of another nightly spectacle of the same name that ended in 1968: The pushing of burning coals over Glacier Point into Yosemite Valley below.

“Horsetail Fall is an amazing natural phenomenon if you see it under the right circumstances: when there’s enough water, when the light’s right,” photographer Michael Frye said in an episode of “Yosemite Nature Notes.” “This thin ribbon of water just glowing neon orange with the cliff in the shade behind it so it just seems like it has its own sort of light, that there’s nothing else creating it.”

Officials warned “even some haze or minor cloudiness can greatly diminish or eliminate the effect.”