Yosemite's 'firefall': Fiery-red water looks like lava

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An annual trick of the light is treating visitors to a fiery red waterfall at California's Yosemite National Park.

The setting sun lights up Horsetail Falls for a few weeks every February in a phenomenon called a "firefall".

When conditions are just right, the waterfall looks like lava gushing thousands of feet from a high cliff.

The spectacle lasts only a few minutes a day, but attracts hundreds of visitors to the park every year.

Haze or even slight cloudiness can diminish or eliminate the effect, the National Park Service says. But "when the sun drops at the exact right angle," spokesman Scott Gediman tells AFP, "it's magical".

California and much of the western US has been plagued by drought for years, threatening the firefall's appearance.

 

But the downpours and massive flooding that devastated much of the west early this year have plumped up the state's watercourses, making this year's firefall picture-perfect.)

[EVENKEEL]

When I was a kid we'd drive to Yosemite on a whim at night. Go camping there without reservations. Now you need a reservation just to enter the Park.

[pgrahmm]

I have some friends there watching the fire falls right now, today/yesterday.....

It's spectacular to watch as is the rest of the upper and lower valleys.....

Bodie, above Yosemite is also worth a look.....

For accessable natural beauty California is hard to beat no matter the terrain extreme/preference