UPDATE: As of 2020 I am no longer posting annual updates concerning this subject — and I am editing older posts on the subject in light of the need to be more responsible about not encouraging the onslaught. I also no longer recommend going to the Valley to see it. Unfortunately, too much exposure (yes, I played a part in it, unfortunately) has led to absurd crowds, traffic jams, littering, destruction of areas in the Valley where too many people go to see it… and the park has increasingly — and appropriately — cracked down. Parking options have been eliminated, at least one viewing location has been closed. Good news! The rest of Yosemite Valley is still there and often exceptionally beautiful at this time of year.

(This is a re-post of something I posted at my dan’s outside web site after returning from Yosemite this past weekend. I am leaving it here for sentimental and perhaps historical reasons, though I now recommend that you do not join the hordes descending on the park to photograph the thing. The experience I had no longer exists and the park has had to Putin place significant controls and rules to deal with the damage from thousands of people showing up for this.)

Although I’ve been going to Yosemite regularly since I was perhaps five years old (and I’m not going to say how long ago that was… ;-) I’ve never managed to see the February marvel of Horsetail Fall at sunset. Horsetail is a seasonal waterfall near the east end of the face of El Capitan. During early to mid February (and, according to some a bit earlier and later in the year as well) the light from the sun hits the waterfall just before sunset, creating an amazing light show for those who are a bit east of El Capitan where they can view the backlit waterfall. Galen Rowell made the sight famous with one of his photographs taken several decades ago, and it has since become of of the “must do” photographs in the Valley. Continue reading Photographing Yosemite Valley’s Horsetail Fall →