Yosemite: Let the Fire Fall (S3 E3)

Season 3 of Talk Travel with Glen continues in Yosemite. Every summer night for decades, burning embers were pushed off Glacier Point while crowds in the valley shouted "Let the fire fall!" Glen tells the story of the Firefall and why it ended in 1968, how glaciers carved Yosemite Valley (just as a young John Muir said they did, against California's top geologist), the Ahwahneechee and the real meaning of the name Yosemite, the law Lincoln signed in the middle of the Civil War, Theodore Roosevelt's three nights camping with Muir, the loss of Hetch Hetchy, the first climb of El Capitan, the 1996 Happy Isles rockfall, and the park's black bears that mostly aren't black. It ends with practical tips for your own visit, including how to see the natural Firefall at Horsetail Fall in February. Chapters 0:00 Let the fire fall 1:51 Welcome back 2:17 Granite and ice 4:56 The place of the big mouth 7:08 A gift in wartime 10:26 Three thousand feet of wall 12:28 Black bears that aren't black 13:38 If you go 15:42 Close Watch the full episode with footage from the park free on the Travel With Glen channel on Roku (add code TQGKVJX). More at travelwithglen.com. About the narration: Glen's voice in this episode was generated with an AI voice model built from his own recordings. The script was researched from National Park Service, U.S. Geological Survey and Sierra Club sources. Music: Musopen recordings (CC0). Borodin, Schubert and Haydn.