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.
June and July
Big water window
in a typical year
Snowmelt
What drives it
Middle Fork of the San Joaquin River
Live USGS
Data on this page
gauge 11224000
NPS Devils Postpile
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 Rainbow Falls, and when
Rainbow Falls carries a high Sierra snowmelt river, so its big water arrives when the Middle Fork peaks in early summer and tapers through August. The season here is bounded by access as much as by water: the Reds Meadow road and shuttle operate in the snow-free months, which conveniently overlap the best flow.
Typical best flow: June and July
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What the agency itself says
Just a 2.5 mile walk from the Devils Postpile Ranger Station, Rainbow Falls is the highest waterfall on the Middle Fork of the San Joaquin river. Plunging 101-feet, the falls are aptly named for the many rainbows that appear in its mist on sunny summer days.
Devils Postpile National Monument (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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What Middle Fork of the San Joaquin River is doing today
Flow at the gauge now
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USGS median for Oct 15
Not published
Gauge: USGS 11224000 MF San Joaquin R nr Mammoth Lakes CA, upstream of the falls on the same river. 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
A 2.5 mile walk from the Devils Postpile Ranger Station, per the Park Service, or shorter from the Rainbow Falls trailhead shuttle stops. The monument road is seasonal and mostly shuttle-served in summer.
Sierra mist doing what named this falls: a rainbow standing in snowmelt spray (photographed by the Park Service at Vernal Fall). Rainbow Falls performs the same trick on sunny summer afternoons. “Rainbow in the mist of Vernal Falls in Yosemite National Park. NPS-Madelyn Carpenter (18497149938)” — NPS Natural Resources — Public domain
Common questions
Rainbow Falls flow season FAQ
The reliable big-water window is June and July. Rainbow Falls carries a high Sierra snowmelt river, so its big water arrives when the Middle Fork peaks in early summer and tapers through August. The season here is bounded by access as much as by water: the Reds Meadow road and shuttle operate in the snow-free months, which conveniently overlap the best flow.
This page reads the USGS gauge on Middle Fork of the San Joaquin River (MF San Joaquin R nr Mammoth Lakes CA, upstream of the falls on the same river) 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.
No, but it slims down. The Middle Fork holds water all summer, with the widest, loudest version in June and July; by late season the gauge upstream reads a small fraction of the melt peak. Winter access is over snow.
Devils Postpile National Monument (National Park Service). A 2.5 mile walk from the Devils Postpile Ranger Station, per the Park Service, or shorter from the Rainbow Falls trailhead shuttle stops. The monument road is seasonal and mostly shuttle-served in summer. 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 bring plenty of water and sunscreen for every member in your hiking group as the walk to the Rainbow Falls is very hot, dry, and has little shade." That sentence is Devils Postpile National Monument (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 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.
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 Devils Postpile National Monument (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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