Lehamite Falls is a 1,200-foot cascading waterfall in Yosemite Valley, California, sliding down a side gully of Indian Canyon just east of Yosemite Falls, above Yosemite Village. It runs only in spring, and with its famous neighbor so close it is easy to miss.
The falls
Lehamite Creek descends in a long chain of steep cascades and short falls, nearly vertical near the bottom, over about 1,500 feet of linear distance. A lidar survey puts the drop at about 1,200 feet. The basin above was never scoured by glaciers and holds little water, so even at peak the flow is small.
Getting there
There is no trail to the falls, and none is needed to see them: Cook's Meadow, Leidig Meadow and parts of Yosemite Village all look straight at the gully. The free valley shuttle stops at Yosemite Village, and the meadow paths are flat and short.
Yosemite admission is $35 per vehicle for seven days, plus $100 per person for non-US residents aged 16 and older unless they hold an Annual or America the Beautiful Pass. No timed-entry reservation is required in 2026.
When to go
April through June is the season. The falls usually run dry by the end of July, and in low-snow years by May or June. Look for them on the same trip as Yosemite Falls at its spring peak.
On site
Indian Canyon, the gully below the falls, is not an official trail. It is an unmaintained scramble of loose boulders that climbs about 1,300 feet in three-quarters of a mile, and the ladders and cable at one boulder jam are there to service a telephone line, not for hikers. Park rangers have carried out several rescues there, including a hiker badly injured when a boulder gave way in 2013 and one stranded on a ledge after climbing the wrong drainage in 2018. Climbing routes on the cliff close from March 1 to July 15 each year to protect nesting peregrine falcons.
History and name
Lafayette Bunnell recorded that the local Native people called Indian Canyon Le-ham-i-te, "arrow wood," for the shrub that grew there; the name later passed to the creek and the falls.
Nearby
Yosemite Falls and Royal Arch Cascade are each about 1 mile away, and Staircase Falls about 1.9 miles.
Distances are straight-line.