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.
April through June
Big water window
in a typical year
Snowmelt
What drives it
Bridalveil Creek
Live USGS
Data on this page
gauge 11266500
NPS Yosemite
Managed by
their rules govern
Trail status, closures and safety rules belong to each falls' managing agency, named and linked on every page.
The season
What fills Bridalveil Fall, and when
Bridalveil Creek drains a higher, wetter pocket than Yosemite Creek, so its fall keeps a thread of water all year. The Park Service describes the split personality exactly: it thunders in spring and sways for the rest of the year. Peak flow is May; the veil act runs through late summer and fall.
Typical best flow: April through June
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What the agency itself says
This is often the first waterfall visitors see when entering Yosemite Valley. In spring, it thunders; during the rest of the year, look for its characteristic light, swaying flow.
Yosemite National Park (National Park Service)What a snowmelt year looks like at full send: Palouse Falls in mid April, when the Palouse River is still carrying the melt. The same falls in late August is a ribbon. Timing is most of the visit. “04-15-14-palouse” — Dsdugan — CC0
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Right now
What Bridalveil Creek is doing today
Flow at the gauge now
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USGS median for Oct 15
Not published
Gauge: USGS 11266500 Merced R a Pohono Bridge nr Yosemite CA, downstream, on the Merced River just below the Bridalveil Creek confluence. The gauge reads the river, not the brink of the falls, so treat it as the trend line rather than a turnstile.
Source: 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. Gauge verified 2026-08-27.
The other half of the story: the same Palouse Falls in late August. Nothing is wrong; this is what a snowmelt river does every year once the melt is spent. “Palouse Falls 20100829” by Mark Wagner, CC BY-SA 2.5
Getting there
Access, in the agency's words and ours
Short paved walk-up trails lead from a signed parking area near the falls, one of them wheelchair accessible. The viewing area was rebuilt in recent years and absorbs heavy crowds in May and June.
Yosemite spray and a rainbow, photographed by the National Park Service at Vernal Fall a few miles up the valley. Every fall on this side of the Sierra runs the same snowmelt calendar. “Rainbow in the mist of Vernal Falls in Yosemite National Park. NPS-Madelyn Carpenter (18497149938)” — NPS Natural Resources — Public domain
Common questions
Bridalveil Fall flow season FAQ
The reliable big-water window is April through June. Bridalveil Creek drains a higher, wetter pocket than Yosemite Creek, so its fall keeps a thread of water all year. The Park Service describes the split personality exactly: it thunders in spring and sways for the rest of the year. Peak flow is May; the veil act runs through late summer and fall.
This page reads the USGS gauge on Bridalveil Creek (Merced R a Pohono Bridge nr Yosemite CA, downstream, on the Merced River just below the Bridalveil Creek confluence) live in your browser, and shows the latest flow next to the median USGS publishes for today's date, so you can see where today sits in the year. The gauge reads the river, not the brink, so treat it as the trend rather than a turnstile.
Not usually. The Park Service lists Bridalveil as flowing all year with its peak in May. Late summer reduces it to the light, wind-blown veil that earned the name, which is a different sight rather than a missing one.
Yosemite National Park (National Park Service). Short paved walk-up trails lead from a signed parking area near the falls, one of them wheelchair accessible. The viewing area was rebuilt in recent years and absorbs heavy crowds in May and June. Trail status, closures and safety rules are theirs, and their page is linked on this one; nothing here overrides what they publish.
In their own words: "Be sure to stay on trails—the rock is extremely slick (even when dry) and the ciurrent in the river or creek is very powerful." That sentence is Yosemite National Park (National Park Service)'s, quoted verbatim, and their page is the place to check before you go.
Yosemite Falls in May, running on snowmelt that will be gone by late summer. The National Park Service tells visitors the falls can be dry by August, which is why every falls page here starts from its watershed. “Tourists below Yosemite Falls (39832011431)” by Mike McBey, CC BY 2.0
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 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.
Flow windows are typical-year climatology drawn from the driver and the agency language quoted above, not forecasts. Live readings and per-date percentiles are U.S. Geological Survey data, public domain; the above-or-below-typical line is our comparison and is labelled as such. Access, trail and safety information belongs to Yosemite National Park (National Park Service). National picture: waterfall season across the US → Hero image: “Rainbow in the mist of Vernal Falls in Yosemite National Park. NPS-Madelyn Carpenter (18497149938)” — NPS Natural Resources — Public domain
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