9 documented waterfalls in California, when each one actually runs, and what the river is doing right now where a gauge exists.
Trail status, closures and safety rules belong to each falls' managing agency, named and linked on every page.
Each card carries the typical big-water window drawn from the falls' actual driver, and the latest USGS reading on its feeding river where a gauge exists. The full page for each falls explains the season, shows today against the USGS percentile band, and quotes the managing agency on access.
The tallest waterfall in North America by the Park Service's measure, and the most famous seasonal one: 2,425 feet of snowmelt that thunders in May and is often gone by August.
The 620 foot fall at the gateway of Yosemite Valley: a thundering column in spring, a light swaying veil the rest of the year, and one of the few Yosemite falls that never quite quits.
The 317 foot Merced River step on the Mist Trail, wide as a curtain in June and narrowed to ribbons by late summer; the mist that names the trail is a spring-only drenching.
The 594 foot upper step of the Merced staircase above Vernal Fall, at its loudest in late May and June and visible from Glacier Point when the road is open.
The winter-only fall off El Capitan that catches sunset in mid to late February and appears to burn: the famous natural firefall, gone entirely by summer.
The 101 foot drop of the Middle Fork San Joaquin near Devils Postpile, named for the rainbows that stand in its mist on sunny summer days.
The rare tidefall: a roughly 40 foot drop straight onto Wildcat Beach in the Point Reyes wilderness, fed by coastal rain and reached only by a long hike.
California's great exception: 129 feet of aquifer water pouring at a hundred million gallons a day, nearly the same in September as in May.
The 80 foot Big Sur tidefall that drops onto a cove beach at Julia Pfeiffer Burns State Park, running year round on a small coastal creek that is fattest in the rainy season.
Live readings: USGS Water Services (National Water Information System). Instantaneous values and daily statistics services. U.S. Geological Survey data are works of the United States Government and are in the public domain.
Most of California's documented falls run on snowmelt, so they peak when the high country lets go and fade through the summer. The mix here is 6 snowmelt, 2 rain, 1 spring across the 9, and 5 of them have an active USGS gauge on or near the stream.
Windows are typical-year climatology from each falls' driver, not forecasts. Live readings and percentile bands are USGS data, public domain; where a page says a river is above or below typical, that comparison is ours and is labelled. Access and safety belong to each falls' managing agency, named on its page. National picture →