The Yosemite Firefall was a summer time ritual that lasted from 1872 until 1968 in which burning hot embers were dropped a height of about 3000 feet from the top of Glacier Point in Yosemite National Park down to the valley below, and from a distance looked similar to a glowing water fall because the people who dumped the embers made sure to do so in a uniform fashion. The ritual was performed by several generations of the owners of the Glacier Point Hotel. The ritual ended in January 1968 when the National Park Service ordered that the Firefall be discontinued due to the overwhelming number of visitors it attracted, and the fact that it was not a natural event. The hotel burned down a year later and was never rebuilt.

The ritual was performed at 9 PM every night, to coincide with the end of a performance at Camp Curry.

On August 9, 1969, an electrical fire started on the bottom floor of the unoccupied hotel. Within minutes, the Glacier Point Hotel along with the Mountain House and several trees were destroyed in the fire. A nearby stockpile of Red Fir left over from the firefall helped enlarge the flames. After the incident, visitors were kept away from Glacier Point as demolition crews removed the remaining debris. In later years, a granite Amphitheater was built on the site of the hotel and a new visitor center has completed near the site. These changes were part of a 1996-1997 modernization effort[1] to transform the heavily traveled path. Even so, some evidence of the Glacier Point, such as some of the old foundations, are still evident. The iconic boulder,[2] another example, behind the hotel has also remained in its original position.