Waterfall of "Fire" ...!

Behold a strange quirk of Nature!!  This is from the Yosemite National Park.

Gazetted as a national park in 1890, Yosemite is famous for its rugged terrain,waterfall and century-old pine trees, covering over 1200 sq km. El Capitan, the"fire" waterfall is one of the most spectacular of all scenery.

This spectacle of Nature is created by the reflection of sunlight hitting the water at just that right angle. Seen only in a 2-week period towards the end of Feburary, photographers would often have to wait and endure years of patience in order to capture them. The reason is its appearance depends on a few natural phenomena occurring at the same time and luck.


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 be much snow left to melt!! Then, the specific angle of the sunrays hitting the falling water; the Sun's position must be exactly just so at a particular spot in the sky.  This occurs only in the month of February and at the short hours of dusk. If it’s cloudy, that’s too bad!! The fact that theweather in the National Park at that time of the year is often volatile and unpredictable is another impediment.