Wanderers in Wonder

Wandering aimlessly in the Sierra Nevada Foothills we came across an art gallery with an interesting name. We wandered in and, what a stunning collection of the owner’s photography. Nancy was a wedding photographer in San Diego. In the early 2000’s she took a vacation to Yosemite National Park. In a conversation with a park ranger she mentioned what she did for a living. The ranger responded, “a wedding photographer could make a killing up here, we’re up to over two hundred weddings a year with the nearest photographer in San Francisco”. Nancy did some due diligence market research and took the plunge. She moved to Wawona just outside the park boundary and set up shop. Over the years she transitioned from wedding photography to her passion, landscape photography. Eventually she opened the Firefall Gallery in Oakhurst, CA.

In 2003 Nancy took a picture of Horsetail Falls at sunset, the end of February. The local Chamber of Commerce used the picture to promote Yosemite in winter when the tourists are not around and businesses struggle. The crowds eventually came in such numbers that the park instituted a permit system.

In a conversation with an elderly woman, Mary, camped a few sites from us, I mentioned Nancy and her Firefall Gallery. I told Mary what a beautiful picture Nancy had taken of the Firefall at Horsetail Falls. She asked my if I noticed that the gallery uses the date 1968 as its beginning. I responded in the negative. I was curious however, because Nancy told me she set up the gallery in 2015. Mary then related the following. “In 1872 David Curry, for whom Curry Village in Yosemite National Park was named, began a tradition that would continue for ninety-seven years. Every summer evening he would have some of employees build a bonfire at the top of Glacier Point. At 9:00 David would yell ‘Firefall’ and the employees would push the burning embers over the cliff” and…

the Original Firefall…Mr. Curry’s guests stood in awe. The evening event was cancelled by the Yosemite National Park Superintendent for safety reasons in 1968.

‘Moonbows’ at Yosemite Falls. During the Full Moon, ‘Moonbows’ appear at Yosemite Falls.

Peace…Wanderers in Wonder.