Yosemite Creek

Yosemite Creek above its falls, circa 1981

Yosemite Creek is a 13.2-mile-long (21.2 km) creek of the Sierra Nevada, located in Yosemite National Park, Mariposa County, California.^[1]

Geography

The creek's headwaters are at the Grant Lakes (37°54′04″N 119°32′27″W / 37.90103°N 119.54072°W), and it flows southwest to drop 2,425 feet (739 m) over Yosemite Falls to Yosemite Valley, then flows southeast to its mouth at the Merced River, just southwest of Yosemite Village. (37°44′33″N 119°35′41″W / 37.74243°N 119.59461°W) ^[2] The Merced is a tributary of the San Joaquin River, in the San Joaquin Valley.

Today, Yosemite Creek flows over the Yosemite Valley rim to create Upper Yosemite Fall. Before its diversion about 130,000 years ago, Yosemite Creek flowed down an older channel just to the west, from which it cascaded down through the steep ravine that is now the route of the Yosemite Falls Trail.^[3]

Hydrology

Yosemite Creek flooding its channel in Yosemite Valley (2005).

The Yosemite Creek watershed, which feeds the creek and Yosemite Falls, contains 43 square miles (110 km²). It is largely a granite basin that was scraped clean of soil by glaciers. Because of the shallow soil base, the Yosemite Creek watershed has little capacity to hold water, so it quickly drains as the snow melts.^[4]

See also

• Yosemite Falls
• Geology of the Yosemite area
• Tributaries of the San Joaquin River
• Yosemite Valley

References

1. U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline data. The National Map, accessed March 11, 2011
2. "Yosemite Creek". Geographic Names Information System. United States Geological Survey. Retrieved 2009-05-04.
3. N. King Huber (1922). The Geologic Story of Yosemite Valley.
4. "Yosemite at a Glance: Waterfalls". Yosemite National Park.

External links