United States 
In numbers.
212m
Height
0.62m³/s
Average flow
estimate
Apr–May
Best months
1.3MW
Water power
estimate
The water at Chilnualna 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.
- 1.1 m³/sJan
- 1.4 m³/sFeb
- 1.5 m³/sMar
- 1.5 m³/sApr
- 0.9 m³/sMay
- 0.4 m³/sJun
- 0.1 m³/sJul
- 0.1 m³/sAug
- 0.1 m³/sSep
- 0.2 m³/sOct
- 0.4 m³/sNov
- 0.9 m³/sDec
From about 0.09 m³/s in the lowest month to 1.5 m³/s in the highest. Best months to go, with plenty of water and pleasant days: from April to May.
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 on Chilnualna Creek in Yosemite National Park, California
Chilnualna Fall is a waterfall in United States. The water falls 212 m. It lies within Yosemite Wilderness.
Getting there.
- Yosemite Valleynearest town · 20 km in a straight line
- Parking 2,320 m awaynearest car park in OpenStreetMap, straight line
- Mammoth Yosemite Airport (MMH)nearest airport with scheduled flights · 69 km in a straight lineCar hire at FAT airport (Fresno)Discover Cars · Affiliate link↗
- From April to Maybest 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.
1.3 MW
About 0.62 m³/s falling 212 m: the power of the water as it drops.
- enough to power about 324 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 626 m in 3.6 km.
What is around.
- 6viewpointsChilnualna Fall viewpoint, Chilnualna Creek Cascades viewpoint, Lower Chilnualna Fall viewpoint and 3 more
- 2waymarked walking routesSwinging Bridge Trail, Chilnualna Falls Trail
- 1car parks
- —swimming spots
- —picnic sites
- 1toilets
- 1information boards and visitor centres
- —bus stops within 1 km
- 3other named waterfalls within 4 kmChilnualna Creek Cascades, Lower Chilnualna Falls, Alder Creek Falls
- —caves
- 3campsitesWawona Horse Camp, Wawona Campground, Camp Wawona
- 1hotels, B&Bs and huts within 6 kmWawona Hotel
- —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 Valley20 km in a straight line
- Ahwahnee24 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 | 5 | 5 | 8 | 11 | 17 | 24 | 28 | 27 | 24 | 17 | 10 | 5 |
| Night °C | -5 | -5 | -3 | -1 | 3 | 8 | 13 | 12 | 8 | 3 | -1 | -5 |
| 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 (1,892 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.
Chilnualna Fall
United States
- 212 mHeight
- 0.62 m³/sAverage flow
- Apr–MayBest months
About these numbers
| Names, height, width, river | Wikidata (Q37583) · 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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