United States 
In numbers.
650m
Height
8.4m³/s
Average flow
estimate
Mar–May
Best months
53MW
Water power
estimate
The water at Horsetail 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.
- 13 m³/sJan
- 17 m³/sFeb
- 18 m³/sMar
- 17 m³/sApr
- 11 m³/sMay
- 4.8 m³/sJun
- 2.1 m³/sJul
- 1.5 m³/sAug
- 1.4 m³/sSep
- 2.9 m³/sOct
- 4.8 m³/sNov
- 11 m³/sDec
From about 1.4 m³/s in the lowest month to 18 m³/s in the highest. Best months to go, with plenty of water and pleasant days: from March 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 in Yosemite National Park, California
Horsetail Fall is a waterfall in United States. The water falls 650 m. It lies within Yosemite Wilderness.
Getting there.
- Yosemite Valleynearest town · 4.6 km in a straight line
- Parking 510 m awaynearest car park in OpenStreetMap, straight line
- Mammoth Yosemite Airport (MMH)nearest airport with scheduled flights · 70 km in a straight lineCar hire at FAT airport (Fresno)Discover Cars · Affiliate link↗
- From March 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.
53 MW
About 8.4 m³/s falling 650 m: the power of the water as it drops.
- as much as 18 large wind turbines
- enough to power about 13,300 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 912 m in 1.0 km.
What is around.
- 4viewpointsBridalveil Fall Viewpoint, Horsetail Fall viewing position, Ribbon Falls Viewpoint and 1 more
- 4waymarked walking routesYosemite Valley Loop Trail, Upper Yosemite Fall Trail, Rockslides Trail and 1 more
- 15car parks
- —swimming spots
- 3picnic sites
- 4toilets
- 3information boards and visitor centres
- 3bus stops within 1 km
- 7other named waterfalls within 4 kmBridalveil Fall, Middle Cascades, Lower Yosemite Fall and 4 more
- —caves
- 8campsitesYosemite Valley Backpackers Campground, Camp 4, Housekeeping Camp and 5 more
- 3hotels, B&Bs and huts within 6 kmAhwahnee Hotel, Yosemite Valley Lodge
- 2restaurants 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 Valley4.6 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 | 6 | 6 | 8 | 12 | 18 | 24 | 29 | 28 | 24 | 18 | 11 | 5 |
| Night °C | -5 | -5 | -3 | 0 | 4 | 9 | 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 (1,804 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.
Horsetail Fall
United States
- 650 mHeight
- 8.4 m³/sAverage flow
- Mar–MayBest months
About these numbers
| Names, height, width, river | Wikidata (Q37385) · 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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