Bridalveil Fall

Bridalveil Fall is a 620-foot waterfall dropping from a hanging side valley onto Yosemite Valley’s floor. It’s often the first waterfall you see when entering the valley. A short paved walk gets you close enough to hear the water and feel the spray, so I’d make room for this stop even on a busy Valley day. It’s especially rewarding when you want a major fall without committing to a long hike.

From the Wawona Road parking lot, the paved main route is 0.5 mile round trip, with about 80 feet of climbing; allow roughly 20 minutes. A midway platform is wheelchair accessible, but the grade gets steeper beyond it and the final viewpoint at the base isn’t wheelchair accessible. A second paved approach starts at roadside parking farther east on Southside Drive and follows a historic carriage road. It’s about 0.75 mile round trip, crosses Bridalveil Creek, and gives you a different angle.

Bridalveil flows year-round, but the big show is in spring and early summer, when snowmelt sends its strongest flow over the cliff. Spray can soak you, and sometimes makes the very end of the trail hard to reach. Later in the year, the fall often thins to the light stream that sways in the wind. In winter, the trail can turn icy and slick.

At the base, the fall sits between Leaning Tower and Cathedral Rocks. Use a wide shot that keeps some granite on both sides of the water; a tight crop loses the valley’s scale. If spring spray catches the sun, look for a rainbow in the mist.

Bridalveil is a hanging waterfall: glaciers cut Yosemite Valley much deeper than its smaller tributary valley. When the ice retreated, Bridalveil Creek was left high above the valley floor and had to drop over the cliff to join it. The 620-foot plunge is the visible result of that uneven carving.

Southern Sierra Miwuk people called the waterfall Pohono. The name has stayed with this dramatic drop into Yosemite Valley.