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Yosemite Falls makes three distinct plunges before reaching the
Valley floor: the 1,430 foot Upper Fall, an intermediate 675 foot
chain of cascades, and the 320 foot Lower Fall.
Yosemite Falls is the pride of Yosemite National Park. This is
most glorious and beautiful waterfall in the United States. It
is the world's fifth tallest waterfall.
Just like other components of nature, Yosemite Falls is highly
affected by the seasons. The waterfall is at its height in spring
and early summer, when melting winter snow collected along the
high country path of Yosemite Creek forms a torrent of water that
plunges over the cliffs into the Valley. The avalanche of water
fills the rock basin with spray and consequent wind. Rainbows
appear and disappear, and the thundering sound of the Falls reverberates
in the Valley and rattles windows at Yosemite Lodge. By late summer,
Yosemite Falls becomes a mere trickle, and often dries up entirely
by autumn when the nearby oaks, dogwoods and maple trees are awash
in vibrant color.
In winter, a completely different phenomenon occurs at Yosemite
Falls. “Every clear, frosty morning loud sounds are heard booming
and reverberating from side to side of the Valley,” wrote Yosemite’s
famous naturalist, John Muir. “The strange thunder is made by
the fall of sections of ice formed of spray that is frozen on
the face of the cliff along the sides of the Upper Yosemite Fall
. . . This frozen spray gives rise to one of the most interesting
winter features of the Valley–a cone of ice at the foot of the
fall, four or five hundred feet high.” In official records, the
maximum height of the cone is documented at 322 feet, about as
tall as a 25-story building. When temperatures warm in early spring,
the water from the Upper Fall begins to drill a hole at the top
of the cone, creating a volcano-like structure, and by mid-April,
most of the cone has melted. Another winter occurrence in and
around Yosemite Falls is “frazil ice,” a substance that forms
in waterfalls and creeks when water becomes super cooled. Turbulence
cools the water so that ice crystals form and group into spongy
masses, which sometimes overflow the creek bed. In Yosemite Creek,
frazil ice has frequently covered trails and damaged bridges,
and has even flowed through buildings that once bordered the creek.
In 1997, frazil ice was above the railings of the Lower Yosemite
Fall bridge, almost completely burying it! [Continue]
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