Amazing Fire Waterfall at Yosemite

 This park was gazetted as a national park in 1890. It is world famous for its rugged terrain, waterfall and century-old pine trees. It covers 1200 sq km and the "fire" waterfall of El Capitan is one of the most spectacular of all scenery. The spectacular view of the waterfall is created by the reflection of sunlight hitting the falling water at a specific angle. This rare sight can only be seen at a 2-week period towards the end of Feburary. To photograph this rare event, photographers would often have to wait and endure years of patience in order to capture them. The reason is because its appearance depend on a few natural phenomenons occuring at the same time and luck.
1st, Is the formation of the waterfall - The water is formed by the melting of snow and ice at the top of the mountain. It melts between the month of December and January and by the end of February there might not have much snow left to melt. 2nd, is the specific angle of the sunray hitting the falling water - The sun's position must be exactly at a particular spot in the sky. This occur only in the month of February and at the short hours of dusk. If it is a day full of clouds or something blocking the sun, you can only take pictures of your own sorry faces on the waterfall. It coincides with the fact that the weather in the National Park at that time of the year is often volatile and unpredictable. It compounds to the difficulty of getting these pictures. Someone did !!! And we all get to see it !!!

The spectacular scenery of Yosemite would be famous just for its cliffs, forests and meadows, but the waterfalls give it life, movement, and special interest. People are strongly drawn to the falls, to take pictures and have their picture taken. They clamber to the bases, hike to the tops, swim in the pools at the bottom, and are swept to their deaths over the giddying drops. If this national park were a man-made theme park, the theme would be "waterfalls".

Nowhere else in the world is there such a concentration of major waterfalls. Ribbon and Upper Yosemite rank among the world's highest, Bridalveil, Yosemite, and Vernal among the best known. From almost any point on the valley floor one can see at least one waterfall. From Sierra Point one can see four major and several minor falls. In springtime of a year with abundant snowfall there are dozens of ephemeral falls, some of prodigous height -- El Capitan Falls drops 1400 feet and often blows entirely away before reaching the bottom. Some falls, such as Cascade and Silver Strand, which would be famous anywhere else, are hardly mentioned in the guidebooks, while others, such as Snow Creek, are so difficult of access that almost no-one ever sees them. Staircase Falls is so lost against the immensity of the cliffs at Glacier Point that people who suddenly discern it feel they have made a personal discovery.

 

Title: Amazing Fire Waterfall at Yosemite
Posted by:Riszky Nurseno
Published :2011-03-27T19:22:00-07:00
Rating: 3.5
Reviewer: 5 Reviews
Amazing Fire Waterfall at Yosemite