Learn more about the science behind Yosemite’s Horsetail Fall, which glows like fire every February, and will return between Feb. 10 and Feb. 26, 2026.

Yosemite's "firefall," a brief period every year when the late-winter (and sometimes fall) sun backlights the park's Horsetail Falls causing it to glow bright orange, has grown into a major event.

Between February 10 and 26, for a few minutes at sunset, Horsetail Fall glows like molten lava or cascading fire spilling down El Capitan. It is called the Yosemite "Firefall".

A natural phenomenon has returned to Yosemite National Park.Under the right weather conditions, the sun hits the Horsetail Falls at an angle, creating a glow that appears like fire cascading down the ...

Firefall week is “one of the most challenging operation periods of the winter” for park rangers and search-and-rescue teams ...

As the sun drops behind El Capitan, hundreds of strangers stand shoulder to shoulder in the cold, waiting to see if a thin waterfall will ignite—or quietly fade to gray. There’s a moment in late ...

The national parks put on some amazing shows, from the synchronous butterflies that light up the night sky in the Great Smoky Mountains each summer to Old Faithful’s predictable geyser eruptions at ...