Visitors to Yosemite National Park this week got a first-hand view of the power of nature.
A large rockslide on Monday sent tons of boulders crashing down from El Capitan, the immense 3,000-foot tall granite monolith on the north side of Yosemite Valley.
The slide, which began at 11:42 a.m., caused a thunderous crashing for about 20 seconds near Horsetail Fall, a landmark known for its “firefall,” the popular spectacle every February when the setting sun can cause the falls to appear to glow orange.
Yosemite officials closed the park’s Northside Drive for 24 hours so geologists from the U.S. Geological Survey could investigate. They reopened the road Tuesday afternoon.
A giant section of rock broke off El Capitan in Yosemite today. As fall as I know, no one was hurt. pic.twitter.com/7MihvT3V2Y
— James Piper (@JAMESPIPERPHOTO) February 21, 2023
There were no injuries or damages to park facilities, said Scott Gediman, a Yosemite spokesman. The rocks landed in El Capitan’s talus slope, a rocky pile of debris at the cliff’s base, and did not reach the road.
The slide released about 1,000 to 2,000 cubic yards of rock, Gediman said. That’s roughly the equivalent of 100 to 200 dump trucks full, an amount which likely weighed hundreds of tons.
“There are rock falls every day here,” Gediman said. “It might be a few small rocks, or a significant one. Everyone in the valley heard this one.”
Alex Wood, an artist from England, was visiting the park for the first time when he witnessed the rare event.
“Initially I couldn’t understand why there was such a loud clap of thunder when it was completely blue clear skies,” Wood said. “I then looked across and saw a giant piece of El Capitan, in the shape of a huge oversized grand piano, plummet. I immediately began to film. I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. I realize what I was witnessing was a once-in-a-lifetime occurrence.”
Monday’s rock slide was a reminder of two slides that occurred nearby on El Capitan in September 2017. Those killed Welsh athlete Andrew Foster, 32, severely injured his 28-year-old wife, Lucy, and sent rocks smashing through the sunroof of an SUV driven by Florida tourist Jim Evans, causing major injuries.
Two months ago, on Dec. 27, a San Jose couple, Georgios Theocharous, 51, and his wife Ming Yan, 35, were killed when a rockslide occurred half a mile from park’s Arch Rock Entrance along Highway 140. An estimated 185 tons of boulders hit the Dodge Ram truck they were sitting in, sending it off the road into the Merced River embankment.
Avalanche! Crazy seeing giant piece of El Capitan fall at @YosemiteNPS @NBCNews @CNN @ABC #yosemite #yosemitenationalpark #rock #Avalanche @BBCWorld #elcapitan pic.twitter.com/9fVgQmDXvS
— Alex J Wood ???? ???????? (@al3xjw) February 21, 2023
Videos of Monday’s rock fall were captured by at least two park visitors, Wood, and James Piper, a Novato photographer.
“Holy God!” a man can be heard saying in the background of Piper’s video
Rockfalls are a natural part of Yosemite’s relentlessly changing geology. After the glaciers that carved Yosemite Valley retreated about 15,000 years ago, rock falls — sometimes triggered by changes in temperature, or earthquakes, water or other factors — have been a major force reshaping the famous valley.
About 17 people have been killed in the park by falling rocks over the past 150 years. More have died by drownings, car accidents and other causes.
But rock falls have caused damage and drawn international attention. After a rock slide near Glacier Point injured three visitors in 2008, park officials moved some cabins at Curry Village.
In 1999, Peter Terbush, a 21-year-old rock climber and college student from Colorado, was killed when a large granite slab broke off Glacier Point’s rock walls, hitting him as he stood on the ground anchoring a climbing partner’s belay rope. Terbush was hailed as a hero after the tragedy for holding onto the rope as the rocks cascaded around him, saving the life of his friend who was dangling 60 feet above the ground.
In 1996, a granite slab broke off below Glacier Point and rained 162,000 tons of rocks and other debris down near the Happy Isles trailhead. One woman was killed and 11 other hikers and campers were injured.
Gediman said Thursday that no climbers were on El Capitan at the time of the latest rock slide.
“Generally the climbers are not on El Cap this time of year,” he said. “It was 14 degrees last night. It’s freezing.”
Geologists will continue to study Monday’s slide, Gediman noted. For now, he said, there appears to be no immediate threat of further rockfall at the site, after on the geologists’ initial reviews.
“There’s no guarantee that nothing else is going to come down,” Gediman said “But based on their assessment, there doesn’t seem to be any significant indicator that there might be anything else.”
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