United States 
In numbers.
310m
Height
OpenStreetMap
Jan–Apr
Best months
1,378m
Elevation
The water at Staircase Falls, 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.
- 69%Jan
- 93%Feb
- 100%Mar
- 97%Apr
- 56%May
- 20%Jun
- 4%Jul
- 1%Aug
- 0%Sep
- 9%Oct
- 20%Nov
- 60%Dec
Best months to go, with plenty of water and pleasant days: from January to April.
Estimate from rain, snowmelt and evaporation month by month (NASA POWER, 1991–2020) around the falls. Dams upstream can change the real flow.
Waterfall in Yosemite National Park, CA
Staircase Falls is a waterfall in United States. The water falls 310 m. It lies within Yosemite National Park. It is part of a UNESCO World Heritage site.
Getting there.
- Yosemite Valleynearest town · 0.7 km in a straight line
- Parking 420 m awaynearest car park in OpenStreetMap, straight line
- Mammoth Yosemite Airport (MMH)nearest airport with scheduled flights · 66 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 as mapped in OpenStreetMap (© OpenStreetMap contributors). Buildings and the person are drawn at the same scale.
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 882 m in 1.1 km.
What is around.
- 17viewpointsGlacier Point, Sentinel Dome, Sierra Point and 14 more
- 9waymarked walking routesJohn Muir Trail, Four Mile Trail, Theodore Solomons Trail and 6 more
- 21car parks
- —swimming spots
- 6picnic sites
- 54toilets
- 32information boards and visitor centres
- 6bus stops within 1 km
- 12other named waterfalls within 4 kmVernal Fall, Nevada Fall, Silver Apron and 9 more
- 1caves
- 9campsitesYosemite Valley Backpackers Campground, Little Yosemite Valley Campground, Camp 4 and 6 more
- 3hotels, B&Bs and huts within 6 kmAhwahnee Hotel, Yosemite Valley Lodge
- 8restaurants 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 Valley0.7 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 | 15 | 20 | 27 | 32 | 31 | 27 | 21 | 14 | 8 |
| Night °C | -2 | -2 | 0 | 3 | 7 | 12 | 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 (1,378 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.
Staircase Falls
United States
- 310 mHeight
- —Average flow
- Jan–AprBest months
About these numbers
| Names, height, width, river | Wikidata (Q37584) · CC0 |
|---|---|
| Height of the drop | © OpenStreetMap contributors · ODbL |
| 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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