Glacier Point

1871

A trail, then a small hotel on the edge of the cliff

In 1871 an Irish immigrant, James McCauley, hired John Conway to build the Four Mile Trail from Yosemite Valley to Glacier Point. When the trail was done, McCauley built a small hotel there, the Glacier Point Mountain House, and he and his wife Barbara ran it through the summers.

The campfire

Coals kicked off the cliff became the Firefall

James McCauley often made a large campfire for his guests on the granite point. At the end of the evening he kicked the glowing coals over the edge. People in the valley, 3,000 feet below, were fascinated by the falling embers, and his sons saw a way to earn a little money. They gathered wood for a larger fire.

3,000feet from the point to the valley floor, where the embers fell

Camp Curry

A shout from the valley told the fire to fall

David Curry founded Camp Curry in Yosemite Valley in 1899. He heard visitors remember the Firefall, and in the early 1900s he brought it back. From the valley he called up to Glacier Point to say when to begin. The Firefall ran at 9 p.m. seven nights a week, as the final act of a show at Camp Curry.

1917

A stage road in 1882, and a hotel and a federal road by 1917

In 1882 the Yosemite Stage and Turnpike Company was given permission to build a stage road to the summit, a longer but less strenuous route for horse-drawn vehicles. By the early 1900s it had been improved for cars. The federal government took control of the road in 1917, the same year the Glacier Point Hotel opened.

1968

The Firefall ended in 1968, and the hotel burned 18 months later

The Firefall ended in January 1968, when the National Park Service director George B. Hartzog ordered it stopped. So many visitors trampled the meadows, and it was not a natural event. The Glacier Point Hotel was destroyed by fire 18 months later and was not rebuilt. In February the setting sun lights Horsetail Fall on El Capitan with a fiery glow, and viewing that has replaced the Firefall.