Yosemite Firefall Used to Be WAY Different

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  • Опубліковано 28 лис 2024

КОМЕНТАРІ • 106

  • @donaldbotsai5799
    @donaldbotsai5799 3 місяці тому +4

    Mom grew up in California in the 1930's and her family camped at Camp Curry in Yosemite every summer. One of her most powerful memories was going to watch the Firefall in the evenings. Any time she and my grandmother talked about those trips they always talked about the Firefall..

  • @DanielMcCroskey-ml4hp
    @DanielMcCroskey-ml4hp 7 місяців тому +3

    My family lived in San Jose in the early 50’s; easy to get to Yosemite. My dad drove us up there a couple times, so at age 6 or 7, I got to see the old-school firefall. I still remember it at 79!

  • @thechad4485
    @thechad4485 Рік тому +20

    Hi there! I’m a Yosemite tour guide and I love that you’ve made this video! If you ever want some more details on future videos let me know! There are some really funny details on how McCauley really got the firefall started, and how it was his two sons that started taking bribes and charging for the firefall, until their competition (the Washburn brothers of the Wawona hotel) that basically got law enforcement to get it stopped the first time. Curry who saw it as a boy dreamed of bringing it back, and eventually did! There are so many funny stories that get changed to make them a bit more romantic sounding, instead of the reality of real and often petty businessmen trying to out earn each other. I have so many stories!

  • @cowboyfrankspersonalvideos8869
    @cowboyfrankspersonalvideos8869 Рік тому +19

    Laurance Hadley, the father of a boyhood friend of mine, became the Superintendent of Yosemite in early 1968. Director Hertzog sent Mr. Hadley to Yosemite to clean up things like the firefall and the large number of pot smoking hippies that were camping all over the valley. In July 1969, I was lucky enough to spend 2 weeks with my friend in the superintendent's residence in the valley. One night during my visit, we went outside to find the abandoned Glacier Point Hotel on fire. We watched for about an hour while embers fell all around us. I still have a small one inch wide ember from that fire along with a paper table napkin from the hotel's restaurant which has a drawing on it pointing out various valley features. That trip was also the first time I smelled marijuana. Yup, Mr. Hadley still had a lot do do. He was there for about 3 years before being transferred to Cape Cod National Seashore where he spent the last couple of years before retiring from the park service.

    • @NationalParkDiaries
      @NationalParkDiaries  Рік тому +2

      That's a fascinating story and sounds like Yosemite had a big impact on you. I appreciate you sharing that and watching the video.

    • @cptbuiltk7944
      @cptbuiltk7944 Рік тому +1

      I smoked pot at Yosemite last month. Great tokin❤

  • @tracymetherell8744
    @tracymetherell8744 Рік тому +2

    My parents and brother saw the bonfire fire fall many times. They told me the stories. There used to be a person on the valley floor who would yell “let the fire fall!” And the guy on the point would yell”the fire is falling!” I wish I could have been there. I was 11 years younger than my brother.

    • @NationalParkDiaries
      @NationalParkDiaries  Рік тому

      I've heard many people have very fond memories of the old firefall!

  • @miriamfisherschaefer2495
    @miriamfisherschaefer2495 10 днів тому

    I saw the Firefall in 1964 when I was 11 years old. It is seared in my memory- it was SO beautiful!

  • @Fake_Jesus
    @Fake_Jesus 5 місяців тому +2

    That's my grandfather at 3:42 in the white T-shirt!
    Sheldon Jackson.

    • @keaneragdolls9682
      @keaneragdolls9682 3 місяці тому

      Cool. My family spent many summers in Yosemite and the FireFall was a really BIG deal. I totally understand why it was stopped, but as a child, it was incredibly exciting!🔥"LET THE FIRE FALL!!"🔥

  • @santoast24
    @santoast24 Рік тому +7

    Im an environmental scientist. Basically my whole future and career is ALL about preserving the world and its natural beauty.
    BUT ALSO at the same time..... this is something I am so happy we did. SO happy we got videos and photos of it. And SO VERY happy we no longer do.
    Also loved the Yosemite reenactment from the backyard, top notch.

    • @NationalParkDiaries
      @NationalParkDiaries  Рік тому +1

      Agreed. It was certainly a spectacular sight and no doubt many enjoyed seeing it, but also glad to see our view of National Parks has changed and we can look back on things like this as memories now. Also, yeah, I'm sure my neighbors appreciated that re-enactment lol

  • @kimberchick8527
    @kimberchick8527 Рік тому +2

    Your puns are fire! I'm totally here for more.

  • @sunnygirlishappy
    @sunnygirlishappy Рік тому +2

    Well, who knew or even thought about a Firefall? Thanks for an informative lesson. You're the best!!!!!

    • @NationalParkDiaries
      @NationalParkDiaries  Рік тому

      It's pretty crazy! Can't believe we used to do that in a National Park!

    • @blackholeentry3489
      @blackholeentry3489 Рік тому

      @@NationalParkDiaries Well, it happened. I witnessed it several times back in the late 60's after a couple of days spent hiking and before departing on the 210 mile drive back to my Monterey Bay home.

  • @gtbkts
    @gtbkts Рік тому +6

    Thanks for the awesome content and great video!

  • @SanilJadhav711
    @SanilJadhav711 Рік тому

    Dude so good to be back and watch this channel again, I had been busy last 2 months cuz of semester end
    Just returned home back from the city and this upload been waiting for me, missed UA-cam fr 😭🙏🏻

  • @billmoeller8897
    @billmoeller8897 Рік тому +6

    The Real Fire Fall was really beautiful. As they pushed it over the edge they would sing the Indian Love Call down in Camp Curry. Curry would have a show that would start at 8, go over the history of the park, trails to check out, ect. At nine the show ended with the Fire Fall After that the teens & young adults would head to El Capitan Beach & party. That was a great time to be in the park!!!!!!

    • @NationalParkDiaries
      @NationalParkDiaries  Рік тому +1

      Thanks for sharing!

    • @blackholeentry3489
      @blackholeentry3489 Рік тому +1

      Back in the late 60's, I witnessed the REAL firefall event many times. After a day or two spent hiking various trails, it was the final event we would do/observe before starting our 210 mile drive back to our homes in the Monterey Bay area, often arriving home after 1 AM.

    • @jackattack2608
      @jackattack2608 Рік тому +1

      In the early sixties, between 1960 and 64, my family went every year to Yosemite at least once. I remember going to Camp Curry where they sang a song, but I was 6, 7 or 8 and had no idea what the name of it was. Then, wherever we were in the valley, they had numbered campsites all over the valley (camp 4, camp 9, etc.),most of them are gone now, we would watch the firefall. Before that, as the sun was going down, every one would yell out "Elmer", looking for the lost bear cub Elmer. Every kid would yell out the name for about an hour, as loud as they could. There was a curfew and people obeyed the curfew back then. It was usually pitch black and not much to do but play cards by the Coleman white gas lantern (the kind you had to pump), roast marshmallows, or go to sleep after a long day hiking. Magical times. Somewhere there is a picture of our 1960, pink colored Buick in the hallowed out drive through tree. That is gone now too.

    • @blackholeentry3489
      @blackholeentry3489 Рік тому

      @@jackattack2608 Sounds really interesting as I too have spent much time there. A pink Buick....I remember those. (I still drive an 88 Pontiac Fiero)
      Have you ever read David Paulides ''Missing 419"? He is a former detective and has done case studies of people who go hiking in our national parks and are never seen again.
      In the late 60's my younger brother and I did a three day hike...went up Tenaya Canyon on to Tenaya Lake. Late snows had delayed the opening of Tioga Pass and for over two days we never saw another soul. Still a lot of snow, expecially on the shady side of ridges. On our third day, we climbed Half Dome (My 6th and last time) then hiked on down to the valley floor and drove home. Now, I read about all of these missing people, the biggest cluster being in Yosemite and it gives me the creeps. What happens to ALL those people? BHE

  • @sunandsage
    @sunandsage Рік тому +1

    I never saw it in person but I remember hearing about it back when I was a little kid. I used to have a postcard of the Firefall.
    I'm surprised it didn't start any forest fires.
    Thanks for sharing this.

    • @NationalParkDiaries
      @NationalParkDiaries  Рік тому +1

      Thanks for watching!

    • @jackattack2608
      @jackattack2608 Рік тому +1

      I asked about that as a kid watching it. I was told by my father that the embers would burn out long before they reached the bottom. I suspect now that it wasn't the full story and that the burning embers would fall on just rocks at the bottom, a long way from any vegetation. Most of the embers probably stayed on the ledges on the mountain side.

    • @frederickburke9944
      @frederickburke9944 Рік тому

      only you can prevent forest fires

  • @robertanderson2018
    @robertanderson2018 Рік тому +1

    As a ranger’s kid living in the valley and also at Glacier Point in the 1960’s, I saw hundreds of firefalls. It didn’t fall all the way into the valley floor, as sometimes erroneously depicted; it landed on a ledge about 1/3 of the way down the cliff, above the prominent ledge that the now abandoned Ledge Trail traversed. It was beautiful, like fireworks. No recorded image does it justice, due to the limitations of film in that era. The pictures and movies are all blurred. The NPS was traumatized when they lost the Battle of Stoneman Meadow, and that is what doomed the Firefall.

  • @TheAndrewDan
    @TheAndrewDan Рік тому +3

    Babe wake up new national park diaries

  • @mike19712010
    @mike19712010 Рік тому

    Thank you

  • @beerenmusli8220
    @beerenmusli8220 Рік тому +1

    This was very enlightening and a great explanation!

  • @blastedmcgraw152
    @blastedmcgraw152 Рік тому +10

    I guess you could say James McCauley was…..fired.

  • @golddiver
    @golddiver 22 дні тому

    Only 50 or so at the end of January in Yosimite? Pretty good crowd considering how cold it is there that time of year...

  • @nationalparksprincess3216
    @nationalparksprincess3216 Рік тому

    We got to see this in 2016. I just canceled our visit this year due to the weather. We may make a day trip up to see it, though. When my dad was a kid, he did get to see the man made bon fire firefalls.

    • @NationalParkDiaries
      @NationalParkDiaries  Рік тому

      Only seen it in pictures myself at this point, but hoping to get out there someday!

  • @plantlvr
    @plantlvr 10 місяців тому +1

    Saw the real one in the 60s multiple times, awesome!

  • @AbouttheJourney
    @AbouttheJourney Рік тому

    That video was fire! It definitely did not dampen my curiosity. I saw your video short on Instagram the other day and was wondering why you were shouting from your rooftop. It really kindled my curiosity. 😉Any strange looks from your neighbors?

    • @NationalParkDiaries
      @NationalParkDiaries  Рік тому +1

      Hahaha, I love it! 3-in-1 pun! No looks from the neighbors, but no doubt they were wondering what I was doing 😂

  • @davidgrisez
    @davidgrisez Рік тому +4

    I am 71 years old and I remember the actual fire fall show from when I was a child when my family went to Yosemite National Park. So I have seen the fire falls that was made from a bonfire being made on top of Glacier Point, then the bonfire was pushed over the edge of Glacier Point creating the fire fall show. This was not natural and was discontinued many years ago. I also remember the family car being driven through the tunnel tree. We know that this tree fell during a winter storm. This also was not natural and never again will a hole be cut through a Sequoia Redwood giant tree to form a tunnel.

    • @NationalParkDiaries
      @NationalParkDiaries  Рік тому

      Thanks so much for sharing your story! And thank you for watching my video!

    • @keaneragdolls9682
      @keaneragdolls9682 3 місяці тому

      I'm 76 and have wonderful memories of going to Yosemite, for weeks at a time, and loved the Firefall and the drive through tree. Great childhood memories!🔥In 1980 I bought a 17 acre farm just outside of Yosemite and spent 9 years there. I LOVED YOSEMITE!!🏕

  • @scottcrawford2239
    @scottcrawford2239 2 місяці тому

    The fire fall should return!

  • @meganstahlberger608
    @meganstahlberger608 Рік тому

    Great puns! You should rap to the song fireball, but change it so:
    Mr. G. Point to D. Curry
    You know the cliff on fire
    We gon' boogie oogie oggi, jiggle, wiggle and dance
    Light the cliff on fire
    We gon' drink drink and take pics until we fall out
    Light the cliff on fire
    Now Curry give the awaited, stack up all the logs,
    and light the cliff on fire
    Tell her ready, ready, ready
    I'm on fire
    I tell her ready, ready, ready
    I'm a firefall
    Firefall

  • @josephpadula2283
    @josephpadula2283 Рік тому +1

    In the movie Caine Mutiny that won Oscars they show the firefall in Technicolor
    And may be the best recording of it?

  • @missingshoefilms
    @missingshoefilms Рік тому +1

    I would love to know the history of Yosemite. If you did a video on that and how it was protected by Lincoln.

  • @danburby7936
    @danburby7936 Рік тому +3

    I WONDER HOW MANY PEOPLE ARE STILL AROUND WHO SAW THE REAL FIREFALL ? I SAW IT IN 1947 WHEN I WAS 9 YRS OLD..THERE WAS HARDLY ANYONE IN THE PARK THEN ,LOTS OF BEARS ROAMING AROUND

    • @keaneragdolls9682
      @keaneragdolls9682 3 місяці тому

      I was born in 1947, but it wasn't until the mid-50's that we used to go to Yosemite as a family, for weeks at a time, every year. LOVED the Fire Fall! So cool as a kid!🔥

  • @southcentralPA
    @southcentralPA 9 місяців тому

    So did the Firefall resume fire years I mean five years later?🤔

  • @Luciferwinchester
    @Luciferwinchester Рік тому +2

    The review of the firefall had like 5 innuendos for no good reason, lmfao

    • @NationalParkDiaries
      @NationalParkDiaries  Рік тому +1

      That press release is like a fever dream. I can't believe that was a real thing the NPS actually put out 🤣

  • @geogypsytraveler
    @geogypsytraveler Рік тому +1

    Good one. I lost count how many times I said to park visitors, this is a national park not an amusement park. Park Ranger retired.

  • @HistoryScienceTheater
    @HistoryScienceTheater Рік тому +1

    How did they not burn the whole park's forest down every night with that? I'm sure there were winds which took some of those embers far away from where they planned on.

    • @NationalParkDiaries
      @NationalParkDiaries  Рік тому +1

      As far as I know, the "firefall" only ever fell onto a ledge below the top of the cliff and never fell "all the way down." I also could not find any documented wildfires that were a result of it, which is really surprising lol

    • @HistoryScienceTheater
      @HistoryScienceTheater Рік тому +1

      @@NationalParkDiaries I'm glad they stopped before their luck ran out then. Great video but the way!

    • @NationalParkDiaries
      @NationalParkDiaries  Рік тому +1

      @@HistoryScienceTheater same, and thank you!

    • @blackholeentry3489
      @blackholeentry3489 Рік тому +1

      Solid granite rock has a surprisng resistance to being burned. Every time I witnessed this event, it was on a warm and windless evening. Had any wind been blowing, I imagine it would have been cancelled.

    • @keaneragdolls9682
      @keaneragdolls9682 3 місяці тому +1

      The embers landed on a ledge, they didn't go all the way to the valley floor.

  • @StuffandThings_
    @StuffandThings_ Рік тому

    I feel like this could totally work still, just in some sort of desolate arctic wilderness or mountain area without any particularly special features or any forests to burn. Its a neat idea, though has absolutely no place in somewhere like Yosemite. I'm honestly amazed that there wasn't some story of a wildfire originating from this.

    • @NationalParkDiaries
      @NationalParkDiaries  Рік тому

      I'm not sure this has a place in any natural setting today lol, especially with wildfire concerns!

    • @StuffandThings_
      @StuffandThings_ Рік тому

      @@NationalParkDiaries There are so many desolate, empty, entirely unremarkable mountains in the world, I'm sure we could spare one for this spectacle. Maybe something up in Greenland, Alaska, Patagonia, anywhere desolate would do nicely.

    • @NationalParkDiaries
      @NationalParkDiaries  Рік тому

      @@StuffandThings_ I'm going to have to disagree. I don't think something like this has any place in the natural world today. Our understanding of conservation and park management has changed. It's fun to look back on, but it should remain a memory.

  • @talkinghead3169
    @talkinghead3169 Рік тому

    Where is all the water coming from? I thought that was the highest point? Melting snow? Hmmm

  • @Steveofthejungle8
    @Steveofthejungle8 Рік тому

    I’ve heard about this but I still can’t believe this was a real thing

  • @johnchedsey1306
    @johnchedsey1306 Рік тому +1

    Maybe it's the yearly deadly California wildfires we now experience, but it seems like Firefall would have been a prelude to an inferno had it continued.

  • @MojaveZach
    @MojaveZach Рік тому

    i learned about this in my history of the national parks class i took 2 years ago at southern utah university, the amount of crazy shit parks did for tourism is absurd lol

    • @NationalParkDiaries
      @NationalParkDiaries  Рік тому +1

      Not gonna lie, I'm kinda jealous you had a History of the National Parks class 😂

    • @MojaveZach
      @MojaveZach Рік тому

      ​@@NationalParkDiaries that's pretty much why I mentioned it lol, this school is very parks focused since Zion and Bryce Canyon are very close, and Cedar Breaks National Monument is right up the road, some of the professors call it the university of the parks even lol, so pretty cool school to go to in that regard

    • @NationalParkDiaries
      @NationalParkDiaries  Рік тому +1

      @@MojaveZach sounds like I need to go back to school 😎

    • @StuffandThings_
      @StuffandThings_ Рік тому +1

      Well, on the plus side, it helped promote the system and get the public interested. Of course now its absurd, but I'm somewhat glad that they did these things in the past otherwise the idea of national parks may have just faded into obscurity or not grown at quite the pace that it did.

    • @tracymetherell8744
      @tracymetherell8744 Рік тому

      It was a different time. I don’t recall any stories about the fire fall starting a fire. Drought was never mentioned. Yosemite was not as crowded.

  • @caleblabelle2623
    @caleblabelle2623 Рік тому

    Was the natural firefall known about before they started the fake ones? When was the discovery of the natural one? When the guys took the photo 5 years after the fake one ended?

    • @NationalParkDiaries
      @NationalParkDiaries  Рік тому

      I don't think there are any documented accounts of the natural firefall until after the human one ended. The first description/photo of it was the one 5 years later

  • @ninjagirl226
    @ninjagirl226 Рік тому

    The it’s not an amusement park think has be kind of borderline on a rant.
    So not a nature nerd but a history nerd. I quite often disagree with how the NPS preserves the historical parks as more and more they keep wanting to bring in or emphasize the wrong parts of the park. Not every park does this Johnstown for instance is amazing. But the best part of Fort Monroe isn’t run entirely by the NPS; the NPS section misses the mark horribly if you ask me focusing too much on such a short period of the Fort’s 150+ year history. There’s other examples as well such as birdwatching in Antietam. Or a whole section dedicated to pollinators at FDR, Weir Farm, or something.
    It’s the same basic idea to me. You don’t want the National Parks to be treated as Amusement Parks. Then don’t treat the historical parks like nature parks. Or actually highlight the history that happened there.

  • @MMm-os8kt
    @MMm-os8kt Рік тому +4

    I was there in the sixties when I was a kid I saw that is pretty neat so don't judge something you weren't there it didn't hurt anything

    • @NationalParkDiaries
      @NationalParkDiaries  Рік тому +3

      No doubt it was quite the spectacle, but I don't think there's any argument that it belongs in a modern National Park landscape. I'm not trying to take away anyone's experience with it from back then, just to provide context to a more modern style of National Park management

    • @keaneragdolls9682
      @keaneragdolls9682 3 місяці тому

      As a kid, it was AMAZING!! 🔥

  • @raymondesquivel7501
    @raymondesquivel7501 9 місяців тому

    I saw that 1963 , CAMP CURRY CMP. 14 ,E 17 (( lots of bears , trash dump ❤ 😮)).

  • @planningpersonlaidbackdeep1273

    I liked the puns :-)

  • @MLJFireDragon747
    @MLJFireDragon747 Рік тому

    Remember that all that shit you listed was done with tax money.