Bridalveil Fall, Yosemite — A Deep Dive
For many visitors to Yosemite, Bridalveil Fall is the first waterfall they see — a slender 189-metre ribbon that drifts and sways in the wind as it falls from a hanging valley on the south wall of Yosemite Valley. The Ahwahneechee people called it Pohono, and in a strong breeze the water blows sideways into a veil of mist, the image that gives the fall its English name. Framed by El Capitan and the valley's granite walls, it is one of the defining sights of the American national park idea. Bridalveil Fall is plotted on the map.
A windblown veil
Bridalveil Fall drops about 189 metres in a single plunge from the lip of a hanging valley. Unlike the great seasonal falls of Yosemite, it flows year round, fed by Bridalveil Creek, though it is far stronger in spring. The fall is famous for the way the wind catches the descending water, blowing it sideways and atomising it into a swaying veil of mist — the Pohono, or spirit of the puffing wind, of Ahwahneechee tradition. On windy days the base of the fall can seem to drift far from the cliff.
Geology of the hanging valley
Bridalveil owes its form to the Ice Age glaciers that carved Yosemite Valley. The main valley was gouged deep by a massive glacier flowing down the Merced River, cutting far below the level of the smaller side valleys. When the ice retreated, these tributary valleys were left hanging high on the walls of the deepened main valley, and their streams now plunge off the cliff edge as waterfalls. Bridalveil is the classic example of a hanging-valley waterfall, its creek dropping abruptly from the smaller valley into the glacially over-deepened main valley.
Granite and the shaping of Yosemite
The cliffs over which Bridalveil falls are the pale granite of the Sierra Nevada, intruded as molten rock deep underground and later exposed by uplift and erosion. The granite's resistance and its pattern of fractures shaped the sheer walls, domes and the lip from which the fall pours. The same granite forms El Capitan opposite, Half Dome at the valley's head and the cliffs that make Yosemite one of the world's great rock landscapes. Bridalveil is a small but perfect expression of this geology of ice and stone.
Visiting Bridalveil Fall
Bridalveil is one of the most accessible falls in Yosemite. A short, paved trail of a few hundred metres leads from a parking area near the valley entrance to a viewing area at the base, where in spring the spray drifts over visitors. The trail has been renovated in recent years. From the valley floor and from the famous Tunnel View overlook, the fall is seen as part of the grand composition with El Capitan and Half Dome. Because it is near the western entrance, it is often the first stop for visitors entering the valley.
When to go
Spring — roughly April through June — is the season of greatest flow, when snowmelt swells Bridalveil Creek and the fall thunders and the veil of mist is at its widest. By late summer the flow drops, though unlike some Yosemite falls Bridalveil rarely dries completely. Autumn and winter bring lower water but quieter trails and, in cold snaps, ice formations. Windy days at any season produce the dramatic sideways drift that gives the fall its character. The valley is busiest in summer, so spring and autumn reward those seeking both flow and space.
Part of the Yosemite story
Bridalveil Fall is woven into the history of how Americans came to value wild landscape. Yosemite was protected in 1864, an early act of public land preservation, and later became a national park; the valley's waterfalls, with Bridalveil among the most photographed, helped inspire the movement. To stand at its base in spring, drenched in drifting spray beneath the granite walls, is to experience the scene that helped persuade a nation that such places were worth keeping wild.
Explore on the map
Bridalveil Fall and the other great cascades of Yosemite and the Sierra Nevada are pinned on our interactive map — filter to plan a Yosemite trip, compare the valley's hanging-valley falls, or trace the granite country of the High Sierra.