Yosemite’s ‘firefall’ phenomenon is here, but visitors say getting there is ‘treacherous and unsafe’

Updated 12:10 pm PST, Tuesday, February 12, 2019

Thanks to SF Gate for this story.

Click here (and scroll down) to see the magnificent sights of the Yosemite Firefall

The clouds have parted and the water is running at Horsetail Fall in Yosemite National Park, which means the natural phenomenon commonly known as “firefall” is finally making an appearance.

As in years past, hundreds of people are making the trek out to Yosemite to see and photograph it for themselves. But with the recent snowfall and Yosemite’s new parking policy, conditions for “firefall” chasers are being called dangerous.

Photographer Ryan Fitzsimons visited the park over the weekend and called the conditions “treacherous and unsafe.”

“What would have been a 10-minute walk normally turned into a two-hour trek through waist-deep snow. People were falling in the river. Our clothes were soaked by the time we got to a viewing spot.”

Another photographer, Andy Heitz, apparently a bit taller, said, “Once parked, you either have to brave trudging through thigh-deep snow for nearly a mile to get to the vantage points, or walk on the road and beg for forgiveness from the rangers, who were threatening $280 fines.”

Heitz decided to chance a ticket, stay on the road, then wait for five hours in the cold in order to keep his spot in the photo scrum.

Last year the park required visitors to make an online reservation to see “firefall” in Yosemite. This year, the national park decided to forego the reservations process and, instead, block parking on Southside Drive to manage the crowds.

“We’ve had over 1,000 cars pile up on Southside Drive in past years, and it becomes a safety hazard,” said Yosemite National Park spokesperson Jamie Richards last week.

On its website, the park announced the closest parking area would be Yosemite Falls Parking Area, at least a mile from the closest “firefall” viewpoints. Visitors wanting to see the “firefall” would have to trek the final mile on foot.

It was Andy Heitz’s first year attempting to see the “firefall” phenomenon and though he’d heard Northside Drive was more pedestrian-friendly, he said he knew “parking and positioning over there would be hopeless.”

This wasn’t the first year Ryan Fitzsimons made the trip from the Bay Area to Yosemite to try and capture the famed phenomenon with his camera, but he said it was the first year it felt dangerous.

“I’m not recovered yet and I’m in good shape. If I had known how it was going to be, I would have trained for it. There were people there in jeans. I can’t imagine what they would have done if someone had a heart attack. My dad couldn’t have done it.”

Fitzsimons and the fellow photographers he made the trip with from the group Escaype were surprised by the conditions they were expected to hike in. He estimated there were 200 to 300 people there on Monday to see the “firefall,” including people who had come from as far as India and China.

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