There are five great waterfalls in Yosemite and a number of lesser
ones which would be world-famous were it not for the comparison.
During the flood waters of spring they are at the height of their
beauty, amplifying the living landscape by their many columns and
booming power. Later, as the snow fountains of the high places are
gradually depleted, they take on a more filmy gracefulness but are
lacking in exuberant impressiveness.
Three of the five falls, the Bridalveil, Yosemite and Illilouette,
leap from hanging valleys into the main canyon. All of the minor falls
are of the same type. Vernal and Nevada Falls, on the other hand, are
formed by the entire Merced River pouring over great steps in the
mighty box canyon at the east end of the valley.
First seen and most graceful is the ~Bridalveil~, dropping daintily
620 feet at the right portal of the great valley gate. Well may we
wonder how this charming fall with its exquisite rainbows came to be
called Pohono or "spirit of the evil wind" by the Indians.
Most famous of all, the highest fall in Yosemite and in all the world,
is the ~Yosemite~. Its first sheer plunge of 1430 feet would set it
apart as the greatest of its kind, but by a series of six quick jumps
it descends another 800 feet to the brink of the final precipice, over
which it leaps gracefully 320 feet to the valley floor. Seen from
below, the 2600-foot drop often appears as one fall though in reality
the Upper Fall is fully one third of a mile back of the lower. In
winter a great ice cone, sometimes 500 feet high, forms beneath this
Upper Fall, and its collapse causes riotous ice-floods in early
spring. "Choolook," which in Yosemite dialect meant simply "the fall,"
has a most changing personality. In late summer and autumn he loses
much of his springtime power and obeys every whim of the ever-changing
winds. But the most delightful of all his moods may be seen during the
time of the full moon when the foot of the Lower Fall is veiled by the
delicate iridescence of lunar rainbows.
From the western edge of Panorama Cliff the lace-like ~Illilouette
Falls~ disappears into its box canyon east of Glacier Point. The filmy
character of its 370-foot foam-curtain is almost never appreciated
because of the lack of a proper view-point. The old Indian name
Too-tool-a-we-ack sought to reproduce the sound of gurgling and
falling water.
~Vernal~ and ~Nevada~ pour over the rims of two successive glacial
amphitheatres in the main canyon of the Merced. Both carry a great
volume of water and are much less variable than the mural falls.
~Vernal~, dropping 317 feet in a wide and unbroken sheet, has often
been pronounced the symmetrically perfect of all falls. Its foot is
always bathed in blowing mists which give rise to most exquisite
circular rainbows. Referring to the spray, the Yosemites called the
fall Yan-o-pah or "little water cloud."
~Nevada~, widely tossing out its spray-rockets, gives a vast
impression of power which is probably nowhere equaled except in the
Grand Canyon of the Tuolumne. In its descent of 594 feet it strikes a
projecting ledge, which caused the Indians to name it Yo-wy-we or
"twisting rock."
There is yet another great fall in the Yosemite region, but concerning
it little is known. It is so inaccessible in the mighty Tenaya Canyon
that it is even nameless, and no one has ever reached its base. Seen
from afar pouring over a rounded precipice in the canyon bottom it
appears to be between 600 and 1000 feet in height.
The ~minor falls~ are very beautiful in early spring but all are
ephemeral, blooming delightfully with the melting of snows, but dying
in summer. Largest and best known are the Cascade Falls, which drop
594 feet over the north wall of the lower Merced Canyon and form one
of the chief objects of interest in the ride from El Portal to
Yosemite. Ribbon Fall, highest of all, descends delicately in one
1612-foot leap into a recess just west of El Capitan. From the rugged
south wall Widow's Tears pours 1170 feet to the rock talus. Just west
of Sentinel Rock is a series of picturesque cascades which, in spring,
are dignified by the name of Sentinel Falls. Royal Arch Fall is one of
the most beautiful but most ephemeral of the small falls. During
sudden rainstorms or usually rapid thaws, supplementary falls pour
into the valley over many of its ramparts. John Muir describes the
storm of 1871 in which fifty-six such cataracts appeared in the upper
end of Yosemite Valley.