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.
April through June
Big water window
in a typical year
Snowmelt
What drives it
Yosemite 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 Yosemite Falls, and when
Yosemite Falls runs on Yosemite Creek, a modest snowmelt drainage with no glacier and no big spring behind it, which is why the falls lives and dies with the melt. The Park Service puts its flow at roughly November through July with the peak in May, and says plainly that by August it is often a trickle or dry. A first visit in late summer that finds bare granite is not bad luck; it is the schedule.
Typical best flow: April through June
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What the agency itself says
The best time to see waterfalls is during spring, when most of the snowmelt occurs. Peak runoff typically happens in May or June, with some waterfalls (including Yosemite Falls) often only a trickle or completely dry by August.
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 Yosemite Creek is doing today
Flow at the gauge now
Loading
USGS median for Oct 15
Not published
Gauge: USGS 11266500 Merced R a Pohono Bridge nr Yosemite CA, downstream, on the Merced River below Yosemite Valley (no active gauge exists on Yosemite Creek itself). 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 one mile loop trail reaches the base of the Lower Fall, with the eastern side of the loop wheelchair accessible. The strenuous Upper Yosemite Fall trail climbs to the top. Park entry reservations have applied in recent peak seasons; check the park site before driving.
Lower Yosemite Fall at spring flow, the payoff for timing the snowmelt. The same view in September is often bare rock, exactly as the Park Service says. “Tourists below Yosemite Falls (39832011431)” by Mike McBey, CC BY 2.0
Common questions
Yosemite Falls flow season FAQ
The reliable big-water window is April through June. Yosemite Falls runs on Yosemite Creek, a modest snowmelt drainage with no glacier and no big spring behind it, which is why the falls lives and dies with the melt. The Park Service puts its flow at roughly November through July with the peak in May, and says plainly that by August it is often a trickle or dry. A first visit in late summer that finds bare granite is not bad luck; it is the schedule.
This page reads the USGS gauge on Yosemite Creek (Merced R a Pohono Bridge nr Yosemite CA, downstream, on the Merced River below Yosemite Valley (no active gauge exists on Yosemite Creek itself)) 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.
Yes, most years. The National Park Service states that Yosemite Falls is often only a trickle or completely dry by August, returning with the first storms around November. Winter adds its own show: an ice cone forms at the base of the upper fall.
Yosemite National Park (National Park Service). A one mile loop trail reaches the base of the Lower Fall, with the eastern side of the loop wheelchair accessible. The strenuous Upper Yosemite Fall trail climbs to the top. Park entry reservations have applied in recent peak seasons; check the park site before driving. 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 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.
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