Re: Yosemite Firefall with Huell Howser

Took all night to get this all uploaded

Here ya go.



And I STILL don't have any good photos of my own dog gonnit




Exciting




Camp Curry



And last but not least: Horsetail






Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 05/28/2009 10:34PM by Vince.

Thanks for doing that. I've seen this once a long time ago, but it's great to watch it again before we go there next week.

Good job Vince!

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Old Dude

I guess I had better get a decent hook-up so that I can enjoy these little gems

To quote the immortal words of the Goat "DUH".

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Old Dude

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mrcondron
To quote the immortal words of the Goat "DUH".

(Only One Goatie Per Site)

(the rest are just posers)

Is there now any kind of sign at the spot where they built the fire, with information about the firefall? It seems like a lot of people are still interested in knowing about it.

The fuel for the fire was all the burnable trash that was generated at the hotel, yes hotel, and store at Glacier Point. after the trash fire got going good it was just shoved over the side. Nothing complicated or fancy. Pretty utilitarian actually. I had a View Master reel of Yosemite and the fire fall was one of the eight scenes on it. We won't go into when that was.

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Old Dude

Oh... all this time I thought it was red fir bark.

Probably had to use the bark after the hotel burned down some time in the fifties.

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Old Dude

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Bob Weaver
Is there now any kind of sign at the spot where they built the fire, with information about the firefall? It seems like a lot of people are still interested in knowing about it.

I've never seen anything about it at Glacier Point, and in fact unless you're looking for it, there's no obvious traces of it left. That movie that Vince posted is pretty throrough in its coverage. If you're in the valley for a few days, check the evening program at Yosemite Lodge, usually the firefall movie shows up once every week or two.

It's (fortunately) so contrary to any of the current philosophy of the park service now that I don't think they make a big effort to bring it up except in historical references. I know they did attempt to have one later for a special occasion (fourth of July '76 maybe??), and it was rejected.

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Gary
Yosemite Photo Galleries: http://www.pbase.com/roberthouse/yo

Thanks for your reply. In the Huell Howser episode, the park ranger points to the spot where the fire was built, in a flat place between two rocks. But the cameraman didn't get a shot of it, I guess because other visitors were in the way at that moment. Is that spot still there? Or was it covered up or otherwise obscured during the most recent renovation of Glacier Point?



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 05/29/2009 08:27AM by Bob Weaver.

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Bob Weaver
Thanks for your reply. In the Huell Howser episode, the park ranger points to the spot where the fire was built, in a flat place between two rocks. But the cameraman didn't get a shot of it, I guess because other visitors were in the way at that moment. Is that spot still there? Or was it covered up or otherwise obscured during the most recent renovation of Glacier Point?

Ranger Ewert said, but got kinda run over during the chit-chat between Huell and Nic Fiore, that the rock wall wasn't built till '82. To stand on the actual spot you might have to straddle the wall. I think? I don't remember if there's a plaque or anything, I don't think so.

I didn't get the Ewert speech when I was there, the one-and-only day I was there for the Alpenglow speech the ranger was a small gimpy blonde who gave a wonderful talk about the Firefall (in fact, mentioned Huell''s DVD, which you can get at the souvenir store 3000 ft below). What was pleasing about that chat was about 100 or so people who were on the point were dead silent, listening to the ranger. It was a wonderful evening listening and not having to hear anyone else. Plus you could hear Nevada and Vernal in the background. Sweeeeet.

Anyway, that video will stay on youtube until someone doesn't want it there anymore. I'm kinda surprised not more of Yosemite Week isn't up there in some form. I'm a big Huell Howser fan, especially with his thorough stuff along Hwy 49 including Yosemite. I have his DVDs and could've ripped a hi-def of it but intentionally left you a crummy but watchable copy on youtube...BUY THE VIDS they make great, great gifts. I keep watching the full hour Half Dome episode over, and over, and over...

Another web site I read claims that this is the spot where the fire was built and the embers were pushed from. Is this still there or is this picture out of date?

Also, here is a Youtube video with Ranger Ewert's speech on the firefall:

Glacier Point with Ranger Ewert



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/29/2009 09:39AM by Bob Weaver.

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Bob Weaver


Another web site I read claims that this is the spot where the fire was built and the embers were pushed from. Is this still there or is this picture out of date?

Also, here is a Youtube video with Ranger Ewert's speech on the firefall:

Glacier Point with Ranger Ewert

Thanks for posting that link. I watched it yesterday, I figured curiosity would be very high. We're only human.

I think they (what's they) collected bark i.e. woof woof

I'm still not sure what I did here but I'm happy I did it.

Cya at Reds Meadow in a week with a side trip to Tioga Pass

Have fun, always, Vince

the firefall ended in '69 and so did the hotel and the video/films of vietnam

well there you are

What happened to the two part Half Dome hike? He spent at least five minutes talking about bear poop.

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eeek
What happened to the two part Half Dome hike? He spent at least five minutes talking about bear poop.

Long time lurker, first time poster here -

That episode is one of my favorites. I recorded it and made a DVD that I could watch a couple of times to get stoked up before I go into the park. Not that just going doesn't stoke me up enough by itself.

I have a nice portrait of the firefall that I bought in Yosemite when I was around 12 or 13. It's a full color shot of the firefall from below, laminated onto a slice of tree with the bark still attached around the perimeter. The whole thing is about 10 inches long and about 6 inches wide. It has a little strap of leather on the back so it can be hung on the wall. Maybe I can post a photo if it sometime.

Well I could not locate any trace of the firefall or find its exact location. I saw several places that could have been the "flat place between those two rocks" as the ranger says in the Huell Howser video. But none that were definitively the exact spot. No signs or anything about it either, although we didn't get to go in the gift shop because it had closed before we got there. By the way, Glacier Point is far more frightening than anyone will admit, if you look over the edge of the wall. As long as you stay well back from the wall, it's a fine view, but go up to the wall and look over the edge and it's a shocker. Yet people were sitting and even standing on the wall. One teenage boy went out and stood on that famous overhanging rock, despite the warning signs, and stood there posing for a picture. I could not watch that because it was chilly and a little windy, and one good gust of wind would easily send him to his death. Do people really put so little value into their own lives?

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Bob Weaver
Do people really put so little value into their own lives?

Signs of that everywhere, every day.

I keep picturing in my mind a video of 20 or so people on the visor posing for a picture then whoosh! No more visor, only screams...

http://www.yosemite.ca.us/library/yosemite_indians_and_other_sketches/fire_fall.html

Yosemite Indians and Other Sketches (1936) by Mrs. H. J. Taylor
Yosemite Fire Fall
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The hotel at Glacier Point was also a new venture. Through Mr. McCauley’s efforts to advertise his Mountain House the idea of the Fire Fall was born. A folder published by the Yosemite Park and Curry Company in 1930, says: “At first he [Mr. McCauley] experimented with various kinds of fire works and blazing boughs which he lowered on wires from Overhanging Rock near the present Fire Fall Point. . . . All such displays were comparatively insignificant on the Valley floor 3200 feet below. Finally he conceived the idea of pushing over the embers. The first Fire Fall was pushed over the cliff in 1874 and was continued during the summer season on special occasions.” After Mr McCauley’s death, which occurred in an accident with a runaway horse, there was no Fire Fall for many years; it was all but forgotten. In 1899, Mr. and Mrs. D. A. Curry founded Camp Curry, which at once became popular and successful. Mr. Curry had heard of the Fire Fall and decided to display it on holidays and those occasions when prominent guests were in the Valley. At such times he sent some of his men up the Ledge Trail to gather the wood, prepare the embers, and push the Fire Fall over the cliff.
......
It takes time and preparation to secure a satisfactory Fire Fall. During the summer season one man gives all his time to it. Each day he gathers pine cones, bark, and dead timber, mostly red fir, which abounds in the vicinity of Glacier Point. About one-quarter of a cord is required for the daily Fire Fall. A special shovel with a very long handle was made to push the fire over the cliff. It takes practice to be able to push the embers in a steady stream of fire flowing fifteen to twenty minutes over the cliff. Wood must also be kept in readiness for an emergency. The Fourth of July is celebrated by a double Fire Fall; two streams of fire fall side by side over the cliff In the autumn, before snowfall, a supply of wood is stored where it will be available for the winter season.
Mr. Curry was the first to make a ceremony of the Fire Fall. The close of the camp program and the extinguishing of all the lights are the signals that it is nine o’clock—Fire Fall time. Then follow the calls between Camp Curry and Glacier Point that have echoed since Mr. Curry first called them. “Hello, Glacier Point!” And the reply, “Are you ready, Camp Curry?” Then, “Let the fire fall!” High up at Glacier Point the living embers slowly begin to fall and continue until they become a blazing stream of red and gold swaying in the wind while sparks fly off like stars. The stream grows smaller and smaller until it becomes a mere thread of gold drawing the curtain of night, and darkness descends.

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The cure for a fallacious argument is a better argument, not the suppression of ideas.
-- Carl Sagan

Vince, thanks for the video
I captured the following still that marks where the group stood and pointed to the southeast (small arrow) to a spot below the rail where a flat space between two rocks was identifed as the location of the firefall.

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The cure for a fallacious argument is a better argument, not the suppression of ideas.
-- Carl Sagan

I have read that there is "evidence" of the firefall on the cliff below Glacier Point, where the embers burned off the lichens. Here is a picture of the face taken from below. Do you see the evidence of the firefall in this picture?

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Bob Weaver
I have read that there is "evidence" of the firefall on the cliff below Glacier Point, where the embers burned off the lichens. Here is a picture of the face taken from below. Do you see the evidence of the firefall in this picture?

I don't know what to look for. Here is picture from wikipedia, maybe you can shrink or enlarge the pics and overlay one on the other to get a better idea where the firefall was. You photo shows overhanging rock and I believe the actual firefall was to the right when you look off Glacier Point (to the left as you face Glacier Pt from Curry Village) based on the historic notes already reported in this thread.

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The cure for a fallacious argument is a better argument, not the suppression of ideas.
-- Carl Sagan

Thanks for your reply. Unfortunately those 2 photos don't match up well because they were taken from different vantage points. I was about halfway between Mirror Lake and Yosemite Village when I took the photo, not in Curry Village. But it's fun to try to guess exactly where the fire came down when looking up at the point. I guess in the 41 years since the firefall was discontinued, any remaining charcoal that stuck to the wall from the embers has been washed away by the elements, or simply disintegrated, and the lichens have had a chance to regrow, so the wall has "recovered" from the firefall. If we could find a picture of the wall taken in the daylight in 1968 it would be fun to compare it with today.

Maybe I should post his full-hour Half Dome episode...

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Vince
Maybe I should post his full-hour Half Dome episode...

Yes Please!