Click on the Yosemite Falls Rainbow image to enlarge

Yosemite Falls Rainbow

Yosemite Falls Rainbow was captured on a winter morning in Yosemite National Park. Yosemite Falls Rainbow captures a unique natural event that can occur on the granite walls and waterfalls of Yosemite Valley.

It is not unusual to see rainbows form from the mist of many of the waterfalls in Yosemite Valley in Yosemite National park.  The mist that forms from many of the waterfalls in Yosemite Valley can create rainbows.  The sun has to be at a certain angle to create the rainbow.  When the waterfalls our flowing with large amounts of water during the spring and summer, rainbows can be a common site.

Yosemite Falls Rainbow captures this conversion of mist and sun along the granite walls of Yosemite at a unique time of year.  In the winter time the waterfalls have low amounts of flow.  Often ice covers the falls and creates a dome at the base of many of the waterfalls.

This particular winter when this Yosemite Falls Rainbow occurred was unique.  There was a combination of both water flowing in the falls and some amounts of snow clinging to the falls in the cold temperature.

Yosemite Falls Rainbow was captured on Christmas Day.  The sun was rising from the east with warm light that glowed on the granite cliffs around Yosemite Falls.  The sun was at just the right angle to create a rainbow in the small amount of mist flowing off of the falls.

The morning Yosemite Falls Rainbow occurred it was quiet in Yosemite Valley.  The normal huge crowds are usually gone in the wintertime, and it being Christmas morning made for an even more quiet morning.

An event like Yosemite Falls Rainbow doesn’t last a long time.  Just minutes, and then the rainbow disappears as the sun rises into the sky.

I felt fortunate on this winter morning to see and capture the image of Yosemite Falls Rainbow.