Vernal Fall, Yosemite NP, were called Yanopah (Yan-o-pah), believed to mean “Little Mist”, by the Ahwahneechees, the original people who inhabited Yosemite Valley.
Tag: Vernal Fall
Undoubtedly, one of the best times to see and photograph Vernal Fall is in the springtime, when the fall is roaring with snowmelt. Climbing the mist trail (John Muir Trail) provides early opportunities to photograph Vernal from the bridge and from flat rocks that jut out into the river as you approach the fall. Small trails lead down to the river on the left as you start the climb. Walking down these and onto the rocks gives some awesome views of the fall and Merced River plunging towards you over boulders, cascades, and rapids. Liberty Cap rises majestically above.
In the late afternoon in springtime, about a couple of hours before sunset, Vernal Fall gets low sunshine. With the sun at your back, the fall is hit with front lighting from the sun. When this happens, there may well be opportunities to catch a rainbow, or a double rainbow, through the heavy mist and spray.
The trail continues to ascend alongside the river, giving some further chances to photograph the fall with rainbows. But the air gets wetter and wetter! Steep stone steps lead to the top of the fall. At the top, the trail leads to Emerald Pool, Silver Apron, and Nevada Fall (see Nevada Fall for further details).
Looking back, the view towards Yosemite Valley is also dramatic. As the trail climbs, it turns east around Sierra Point below the 8,222 feet (2,500 m) Grizzly Bear.
The original people who lived in Yosemite called the fall Yanopah (Yan-o-pah), meaning “little mist” or “cloud”. The name Vernal was given by Lafayette Bunnell, a member of the Mariposa Battalion who invaded Yosemite Valley in pursuit of the Ahwahneechees in 1851, during the California Gold Rush.
Bunnell noted in his account “It would be a difficult task to trace out and account for all of our impressions, or for the forms they take; but my recollection is that the cool, moist air, and newly-springing Kentucky blue-grass at the Vernal, with the sun shining through the spray as in an April shower, suggested the sensation of spring before the name of Vernal occurred to me.”