Horsetail Fall

Mid- to late February

Two weeks, if the sky agrees

Horsetail Fall runs down the eastern edge of El Capitan, in Yosemite Valley, California. It is a thin fall, 1,000 feet high, and it flows only from about December to April. Most of the year you would drive past it.

For about two weeks in the second half of February, the setting sun reaches it from behind. On a clear evening the water glows orange. The park calls it rare; most people call it the firefall. The sun’s angle comes back every year. The rest does not. The fall must be running, which depends on that winter’s snow and rain. The sky must be clear, and the park says even some haze or minor cloud can dim the glow or erase it.

So the window is a set of evenings, not a date. For 2027, plan for a weekday between about February 12 and 26, and keep three or four evenings free.

Sunset minus two hours

Park at Yosemite Falls

In February 2026, the park banned parking along the road to the fall. You park at Yosemite Falls parking, just west of Yosemite Valley Lodge, and walk 1.5 miles to the viewing area near El Capitan Picnic Area. One lane of Northside Drive is closed to cars for the walkers; no one may stop or drop passengers between Lower Yosemite Fall and the El Capitan Crossover. If the lot is full, park at Yosemite Village or Curry Village and take the free shuttle back to Yosemite Falls; on foot from Yosemite Village, the park’s map counts 3 miles each way. Cars with a disability placard may drive to the picnic area.

Those were the 2026 rules, and they are the ones to plan on. The park publishes each year’s version on its Horsetail Fall page; check it in January.

Leave the car two hours before sunset. The road may be icy, and on the way back you will be walking in the dark.

Sunset minus forty-five minutes

Stand under the trees

The viewing area is just east of El Capitan, which is where the park says the fall is best seen. Vault toilets and dumpsters wait at the picnic area, and nothing else: bring water, something warm to drink, and something to sit on. Stand on bare ground under the trees: the park asks you to keep out of the meadows and off the closed riverbank.

There are reasons. On February 19, 2022, the park counted 2,433 people watching. In February 2017, a section of riverbank gave way under the crowd. In 2026, Southside Drive was closed to parking and stopping from El Capitan Crossover to Swinging Bridge, and the bank from Cathedral Beach to Sentinel Beach was off-limits.

Set up early, face the east edge of the wall, and look up.

Sunset, about 5:40 p.m.

The minutes

By the Naval Observatory’s tables, the sun sets over Yosemite Valley at 5:38 p.m. on February 15, 2027, and at 5:48 p.m. on February 25. Across the window, sunset moves about a minute later each evening, from 5:32 p.m. on February 10 to 5:51 p.m. on February 28. The glow comes with the last direct sun on the fall, so watch from a quarter of an hour before.

If the sky is clear and the water runs, the fall lights up a deep orange against the dark rock, and then it goes out. The park does not say how long it lasts. Do not look away to check your photos.

Yosemite once made its own firefall, a human-made one: embers poured over the edge of Glacier Point. It no longer does.

Yosemite used to make its firefall by pouring embers off a cliff. In February, the sun does it.

Sunset plus thirty minutes

The walk back in the dark

It will be cold, and dark, and the return is the same 1.5 miles. The valley floor sits at 4,000 feet, and winter lows there average 28°F; the park expects snow and ice on the ground in February and asks for warm clothes, boot traction, and a headlamp or flashlight for each person.

On busy weekends, Northside Drive may close completely for about half an hour after sunset. Walk, don’t wait in the car.

Then eat somewhere warm. The Mountain Room at Yosemite Valley Lodge, by the parking lot where you started, serves dinner from 5 to 9 p.m.

Before February

What to book, and when

A room in the valley is the surest key: you can try again the next evening, and the next. Lodging inside the park opens 366 days ahead and is run by Yosemite Hospitality. Yosemite Valley Lodge, with 245 rooms near the base of Yosemite Falls, is the one to ask for: the walk to the viewing area starts beside it. The Ahwahnee is the other year-round choice. For February 2027 the booking window is already open.

Avoid Presidents’ Day weekend: the holiday falls on Monday, February 15, 2027. The park did not use timed entry reservations in 2026 and had published nothing for 2027 by November 2026.

The entrance fee is $35 per car, valid seven days, by card only. Non-US residents aged 16 and over pay an extra $100 each, unless they hold an annual or America the Beautiful pass. Carry tire chains: the park can require them at any time, four-wheel drive or not.

From San Francisco, Yosemite Valley Lodge is about 190 miles by road, some four and a half hours with no traffic and no chains; from Los Angeles, about 310 miles and six and a half hours. On the day, check the park’s road conditions page for chain controls.

Glacier Point Road, which led to the old firefall, is closed in winter. Spend the days in between on the valley floor, and keep every evening free.

From about May to November the fall is usually dry, and the park calls it easy to miss.