Every February, for about two weeks, the setting sun hits Horsetail Fall on the east side of El Capitan at exactly the right angle and the water glows like molten lava. Photographers call it the Firefall. Nothing else in Yosemite draws a crowd quite like this thin ribbon of water.
Here’s the big news. After four straight years of requiring reservations to enter the park on February weekends, Yosemite dropped the reservation requirement entirely for the 2026 Firefall. No reservation was needed to enter the park or reach the viewing area in February 2026.
The park has not announced what 2027 will look like. Check the NPS Horsetail Fall page before you book anything, because this policy has now changed twice in five years and it can change again.
What Changed for 2026
From 2022 through 2025, Yosemite required day-use reservations to enter the park on mid-February weekends. The system existed for one reason. The Firefall got too popular for the half-mile stretch of riverbank where everyone wants to stand.
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For February 2026, the park scrapped the reservation and managed the crowd with traffic controls instead. Here’s what that looked like on the ground.
- No entry reservation. Your park pass got you in, any day of the month.
- One lane of Northside Drive closed to cars so the crowds could walk on the road.
- No parking between Lower Yosemite Fall and El Capitan Crossover. Rangers enforce this.
- No walking along Southside Drive between El Capitan Crossover and Swinging Bridge.
- The riverbank between Cathedral Beach and Sentinel Beach Picnic Areas closed, river included.
Heads up for 2027: The park typically announces its February plan in late fall or early winter. If reservations come back, half are usually released in advance on Recreation.gov and half two days out. We’ll update this guide the moment the NPS posts the 2027 rules.
When the Firefall Happens
Mid to late February. That’s the only window. The glow shows up in the final 5 to 15 minutes before sunset, and only when three things line up at once.
- Sun angle. The sun has to set at precisely the right azimuth to backlight the fall. That geometry only happens in mid-to-late February (and technically in October, when the fall is dry, which is why nobody talks about October).
- Water. Horsetail Fall is fed entirely by snowmelt off the top of El Capitan. No recent snow plus warm afternoons, no waterfall. Dry winters have killed the show before.
- Clear western sky. One cloud bank over the Coast Range at 5:30 pm and the whole thing fizzles.
Even in a good year, you might get five or six genuinely great nights out of the two-week window. Build flexibility into your trip. Folks who book a single night and expect the postcard are gambling.
How to See the Firefall
Park at the Yosemite Falls parking area just west of Yosemite Valley Lodge, then walk 1.5 miles each way along Northside Drive to the viewing area near El Capitan Picnic Area. If that lot fills, park at Yosemite Village or Curry Village and ride the free shuttle.
Arrive early. The serious photographers stake out spots by mid-afternoon, and on peak weekends the good sightlines are gone two hours before sunset. The walk back happens in the dark, so bring a headlamp and traction for your boots. You’ll be walking on packed snow and ice in spots.
February in Yosemite Valley runs about 53°F for a high and 30°F for a low, and the temperature drops fast the moment the sun goes down, which is exactly when you’ll be standing still. Dress in layers. Bring more than you think you need.
Photographing the Firefall
A few notes from behind the camera.
- The glow peaks in the last ten minutes before sunset. Be set up and metered a full hour before.
- Bring a telephoto. The fall is 1,500 feet up the east face of El Capitan, and a 70-200mm gets you the tight, lava-ribbon shot everyone is after.
- A tripod is non-negotiable. You’ll be shooting into fading light at longer focal lengths.
- Don’t pack up at sunset. The two minutes after the orange fades, when the fall goes pink against blue rock, is a shot almost nobody stays for.
Camping and Where to Stay
Four campgrounds stay open through winter. Upper Pines, Camp 4, Wawona, and Hodgdon Meadow. Upper Pines is the one to target for Firefall trips since it’s in the Valley and reservable on Recreation.gov five months in advance. February dates disappear within minutes of release. Set a calendar reminder for the 8:00 am Pacific release window five months out, not four.
Staying at a hotel inside the park solves the parking problem entirely. Yosemite Valley Lodge sits a 15-minute walk from the viewing corridor. Book it the day reservations open, roughly a year out.
Why the Rules Exist
On one February evening in 2022, the park counted more than 2,400 people crammed into the viewing area. Folks trampled vegetation, spread onto the riverbank, and left enough trash and human waste behind that the NPS started managing the event like a small festival. A section of the Merced riverbank collapsed under the crowds.
The rules are not bureaucratic fussiness. They’re the reason this event still exists. Stay on the trail and the road, don’t cross fences, pack out everything, and use the vault toilets at El Capitan Picnic Area.
FYI: Park traditionalists will tell you “Firefall” properly refers to the old human-made event, and this one should just be called Horsetail Fall. Either way, it’s Horsetail Fall, singular. Not Falls.
Firefall History
The original Firefall was man-made. Starting in 1872, 18 years before Yosemite became a national park, hotel operators pushed burning embers off the edge of Glacier Point every night for the entertainment of guests 3,000 feet below. The Park Service finally killed the practice in 1968, on the sensible grounds that dumping fire off a cliff in a national park is a terrible idea.
Then in 1973, photographer Galen Rowell caught the natural version on Horsetail Fall and made the image that started everything, “Last Light on Horsetail Fall.” Nature had been running a better version of the show all along. It just took us a century to notice.
“Years later after thousands of people have photographed the fall, I think he would be flattered that so many people are coming to photograph this rare phenomenon.”
Tony Rowell, son of Galen Rowell
Horsetail Fall Firefall Video
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