United States Waterfall UNESCO World Heritage

Illilouette Fall

A 116 m drop.

When to go

Walter Siegmund · CC BY 2.5

In numbers.

116m

Height

2.0m³/s

Average flow

estimate

Mar–May

Best months

2.2MW

Water power

estimate

The water at Illilouette 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.

3.1 m³/sJan
4.0 m³/sFeb
4.3 m³/sMar
4.2 m³/sApr
2.6 m³/sMay
1.1 m³/sJun
0.5 m³/sJul
0.3 m³/sAug
0.3 m³/sSep
0.7 m³/sOct
1.1 m³/sNov
2.7 m³/sDec

high water best months to go

From about 0.32 m³/s in the lowest month to 4.3 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

Illilouette Fall is a waterfall in United States. The water falls 116 m. It lies within Yosemite Wilderness. It is part of a UNESCO World Heritage site.

Getting there.

Yosemite Valleynearest town · 3.3 km in a straight line
Parking 1,270 m awaynearest car park in OpenStreetMap, straight line
Mammoth Yosemite Airport (MMH)nearest airport with scheduled flights · 64 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

Car hire at FAT airport (Fresno)Discover CarsSee

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.

2.2 MW

About 2.0 m³/s falling 116 m: the power of the water as it drops.

enough to power about 556 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.

Illilouette Fall seen from above (Sentinel-2)

N 2 km

Sentinel-2 cloudless 2016 (EOX, CC BY 4.0), 8 × 8 km, north up. Points © OpenStreetMap contributors.

The Illilouette Creek through the falls

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.

The valley below the falls

Around the falls the river drops 574 m in 3.2 km. Here the river runs about 230 m below the lower rim of its valley.

What is around.

13viewpointsGlacier Point, Sierra Point, Washburn Point and 10 more
7waymarked walking routesJohn Muir Trail, Four Mile Trail, Theodore Solomons Trail and 4 more
2car parks
—swimming spots
—picnic sites
7toilets
11information boards and visitor centres
—bus stops within 1 km
6other named waterfalls within 4 kmVernal Fall, Nevada Fall, Silver Apron and 3 more
—caves
10campsitesYosemite Valley Backpackers Campground, Little Yosemite Valley Campground, Camp 4 and 7 more
3hotels, B&Bs and huts within 6 kmAhwahnee Hotel, Yosemite Valley Lodge
3restaurants 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 Valley3.3 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	9	13	18	25	29	29	25	19	12	6
Night °C	-4	-4	-2	0	5	10	14	13	9	4	0	-4
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 (1,702 m) at −6.5 °C per 1,000 m. Not a forecast.

Photos

Through visitors' eyes.

Illilouette Fall from Panorama Trail — Fabio Achilli · CC BY 2.0

Illilouette Falls kz01 — Krzysztof Ziarnek, Kenraiz · CC BY-SA 4.0

Illilouette Falls and Canyon, N. to Half Dome (right), and North and Basket Domes (left), to Mt. Hoffman (10,870 ft.)Yosemite Valley, Cal., U.S.A, by H.C. White Co. — H.C. White Co. -- Publisher · Public domain

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.

Illilouette Fall

United States

116 mHeight
2.0 m³/sAverage flow
Mar–MayBest months

Yosemite Falls

United States

739 mHeight
—Average flow
Mar–MayBest months

See the guide

Horsetail Fall

United States

650 mHeight
8.4 m³/sAverage flow
Mar–MayBest months

See the guide

Nevada Fall

United States

181 mHeight
2.6 m³/sAverage flow
Mar–MayBest months

See the guide

About these numbers

Names, height, width, river	Wikidata (Q37588) · 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.