Seasonal Waterfalls

In spring Yosemite features several waterfalls that are nonexistent at other times of the year. This is Ribbon Falls, plunging 1612 feet just west of El Capitan. Its height puts it among the world's tallest cascades, but it only flows a few months a year.

Sentinel Falls is even higher...at 2000 feet it's the seventh tallest in the world! But it only runs in spring and early summer in an average year. Even Yosemite and Bridalveil Falls virtually dry up in autumn. Their water sources, the plateaus above the valley, are buried by snow in the winter, but in summer all of that snow melts and runs off across the granite; there are no permanent snowfields or glaciers of any size. So after the snow is gone, so are the waterfalls.