United States 
In numbers.
189m
Height
0.82m³/s
Average flow
estimate
Jan–Apr
Best months
1.5MW
Water power
estimate
The water at Bridalveil Fall, month by month
It roars from February to April.
The fullest months: from February to April, with the snowmelt. The thinnest: from June to November.
- 1.4 m³/sJan
- 1.9 m³/sFeb
- 2.0 m³/sMar
- 1.9 m³/sApr
- 1.1 m³/sMay
- 0.5 m³/sJun
- 0.2 m³/sJul
- 0.1 m³/sAug
- 0.1 m³/sSep
- 0.3 m³/sOct
- 0.5 m³/sNov
- 1.2 m³/sDec
From about 0.12 m³/s in the lowest month to 2.0 m³/s in the highest. Best months to go, with plenty of water and pleasant days: from January to April.
Estimate: the timing comes from rain, snowmelt and evaporation (NASA POWER, 1991–2020); the amounts from the river model of HydroATLAS (WaterGAP, 1971–2000). Dams upstream can change the real flow.
Waterfall in Yosemite National Park, California
Bridalveil Fall is a waterfall in United States. The water falls 189 m over a front 25 m wide. It lies within Yosemite National Park. It is part of a UNESCO World Heritage site.
Getting there.
- Yosemite Valleynearest town · 6.6 km in a straight line
- Parking 380 m awaynearest car park in OpenStreetMap, straight line
- Mammoth Yosemite Airport (MMH)nearest airport with scheduled flights · 71 km in a straight lineCar hire at FAT airport (Fresno)Discover Cars · Affiliate link↗
- From January to Aprilbest months to go (estimate)
Plan your visit
Stay, explore and get there
Some links above are affiliate links: if you book through them we may earn a commission, at no extra cost to you. It never changes what the data on this page says.
How big is it?
How big it really is.
Height of the drop from Wikidata. Buildings and the person are drawn at the same scale.
1.5 MW
About 0.82 m³/s falling 189 m: the power of the water as it drops.
- enough to power about 379 homes, if it were all turned into electricity
Power of falling water = density × gravity × flow × height. Average flow and height as shown above; an estimate.
Seen from the sky.
8 × 8 km of cloud-free satellite image, with what OpenStreetMap knows around the falls.
N
2 km
Sentinel-2 cloudless 2016 (EOX, CC BY 4.0), 8 × 8 km, north up. Points © OpenStreetMap contributors.
The line follows the river as mapped in OpenStreetMap; heights from the 30 m Copernicus model, which smooths narrow drops — the published height of the falls is the one above.
Around the falls the river drops 608 m in 2.5 km. Here the river runs about 20 m below the lower rim of its valley.
What is around.
- 6viewpointsValley View, Bridalveil Fall Viewpoint, Ribbon Falls Viewpoint and 3 more
- 3waymarked walking routesPohono Trail, Yosemite Valley Loop Trail, Rockslides Trail
- 16car parks
- —swimming spots
- 2picnic sites
- 3toilets
- 3information boards and visitor centres
- —bus stops within 1 km
- 3other named waterfalls within 4 kmRibbon Fall, Silver Strand Falls, Horsetail Fall
- —caves
- 4campsitesCamp 4, Housekeeping Camp, Yellow Pine Administrative Campground and 1 more
- 2hotels, B&Bs and huts within 6 kmYosemite Valley Lodge
- —restaurants and cafés within 3 km
Counted in OpenStreetMap, the map anyone can edit, up to 2 km around the falls (unless noted). A low number may just mean nobody has mapped it yet. © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL).
Towns nearby
- Yosemite Valley6.6 km in a straight line
Weather
The weather, month by month.
| Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Afternoon °C | 8 | 8 | 11 | 14 | 20 | 27 | 31 | 30 | 27 | 20 | 14 | 8 |
| Night °C | -2 | -2 | 0 | 2 | 6 | 11 | 16 | 15 | 11 | 6 | 2 | -2 |
| Rain & snow (mm) | 116 | 111 | 98 | 62 | 35 | 8 | 8 | 6 | 6 | 39 | 61 | 125 |
| Wet days | 10 | 11 | 11 | 9 | 6 | 3 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 4 | 7 | 10 |
| Sun h/day | 5.9 | 6.4 | 7.7 | 9.3 | 11.2 | 13.9 | 13.7 | 13.0 | 11.3 | 9.3 | 7.1 | 5.4 |
| Snow on the ground (cm) | 33 | 33 | 28 | 11 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 9 | 20 |
Long-term averages 1991–2020 (NASA POWER) for a cell about 55 km wide, with temperatures carried to the height of the falls (1,420 m) at −6.5 °C per 1,000 m. Not a forecast.
Photos
Through visitors' eyes.
Recent years
Wet years and dry years
Rain of each month as a share of the 1991–2020 average. A wet season above 100 % usually means a fuller waterfall.
| Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2020 | 16% | 5% | 97% | 159% | 98% | 62% | 23% | 47% | 5% | 0% | 47% | 40% |
| 2021 | 122% | 30% | 67% | 17% | 12% | 92% | 211% | 20% | 20% | 296% | 27% | 214% |
| 2022 | 0% | 5% | 33% | 49% | 3% | 19% | 42% | 331% | 295% | 2% | 151% | 262% |
| 2023 | 264% | 145% | 322% | 1% | 53% | 235% | 15% | 531% | 220% | 10% | 49% | 31% |
| 2024 | 83% | 180% | 154% | 80% | 65% | 46% | 126% | 47% | 85% | 10% | 133% | 43% |
| 2025 | 14% | 173% | 127% | 44% | 12% | 31% | 23% | 400% | 660% | 151% | 156% | 118% |
130% wetter than usual 70% drier than usual
Compare with the waterfalls nearby.
Bridalveil Fall
United States
- 189 mHeight
- 0.82 m³/sAverage flow
- Jan–AprBest months
About these numbers
| Names, height, width, river | Wikidata (Q2360422) · CC0 |
|---|---|
| River flow and catchment | HydroATLAS / RiverATLAS v1.0 (Linke et al. 2019) · CC BY 4.0 |
| Climate | NASA POWER, 1991–2020 |
| Relief, river profile, 3D model | Copernicus DEM GLO-30 · © DLR e.V., © Airbus Defence and Space GmbH, Copernicus/ESA |
| Paths, viewpoints, parking | © OpenStreetMap contributors · ODbL |
| Images | EOX Sentinel-2 cloudless 2016 · CC BY 4.0; Wikimedia Commons |
Every figure is an average, an estimate or a count from a public dataset. Licences and methods: data sources.
The family
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