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.
May through mid July
Big water window
in a typical year
Snowmelt
What drives it
Merced River
Live USGS
Data on this page
gauge 11264500
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 Vernal Fall, and when
Vernal Fall carries the whole upper Merced River, so it never disappears; instead it changes shape. The Park Service notes it flows all year but narrows and separates into one, two or three falls as summer flows drop, after peaking in late May or June. The Mist Trail earns its name only while the snowmelt lasts.
Typical best flow: May through mid July
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What the agency itself says
Flows : all year, though by mid- to late summer, it narrows and separates into one, two, or three falls as water flows decrease; peaks in late May or June.
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 Merced River is doing today
Flow at the gauge now
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USGS median for Oct 15
Not published
Gauge: USGS 11264500 Merced R a Happy Isles Bridge nr Yosemite CA, downstream, on the Merced just below Vernal and Nevada Falls. 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
Reached by the steep Mist Trail corridor from Happy Isles, one of the most heavily used trails in the park. The Glacier Point road view operates roughly late May through sometime in November, per the Park Service.
Vernal Fall photographed by the National Park Service with the flow already narrowed from its spring curtain into late season strands, rainbow included. Both versions are the same waterfall. “Rainbow in the mist of Vernal Falls in Yosemite National Park. NPS-Madelyn Carpenter (18497149938)” — NPS Natural Resources — Public domain
Common questions
Vernal Fall flow season FAQ
The reliable big-water window is May through mid July. Vernal Fall carries the whole upper Merced River, so it never disappears; instead it changes shape. The Park Service notes it flows all year but narrows and separates into one, two or three falls as summer flows drop, after peaking in late May or June. The Mist Trail earns its name only while the snowmelt lasts.
This page reads the USGS gauge on Merced River (Merced R a Happy Isles Bridge nr Yosemite CA, downstream, on the Merced just below Vernal and Nevada Falls) 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 transforms. By mid to late summer the wide curtain splits into narrow ribbons as the Merced drops, per the Park Service, and the famous mist drenching on the trail fades with it. The full-width version is a May and June sight.
Yosemite National Park (National Park Service). Reached by the steep Mist Trail corridor from Happy Isles, one of the most heavily used trails in the park. The Glacier Point road view operates roughly late May through sometime in November, per the Park Service. 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 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 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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