Yosemite spring update

Yosemite is hitting its spring window now, with high waterfall flows, lower-elevation blooms, and no timed-entry reservation requirement in 2026. (nps.gov, nps.gov) The National Park Service says spring is the best time to see most Yosemite waterfalls because snowmelt drives runoff, and peak flow typically arrives in May or June. This week’s park conditions page says Yosemite Falls, Vernal Fall, Nevada Fall, and Bridalveil Fall are all flowing high. (nps.gov, nps.gov) April also brings the first broad wave of accessible spring scenery in Yosemite Valley. The park says April is “a great month” in the Valley, with fair weather, flowing falls, and average highs in the 60s, though rain and snow still happen. (nps.gov) Wildflower timing shifts by elevation in Yosemite’s 11,000-foot range, from 2,000 feet on the west side to 13,000 feet in the east. The park says March flowers open first in the Merced River canyon, while dogwood, shooting stars, milkweed, and monkeyflowers start appearing in Yosemite by mid-May. (nps.gov) That seasonal mix is arriving while Yosemite changes how it handles crowds. The park said on February 18, 2026, that it would not use a timed reservation system this year after reviewing 2025 traffic, parking, and visitor-use data. (nps.gov) Superintendent Ray McPadden said the park found that “most weekdays maintained available parking” and stable traffic flow in 2025, so Yosemite will rely instead on real-time traffic monitoring, active parking management, added staffing, and warnings about congestion. (nps.gov) Spring access still comes with limits. Yosemite says Tioga Road, Glacier Point Road, and Mariposa Grove Road are currently closed for the season due to snow, while Highways 41, 140, and 120 from the west and Hetch Hetchy Road remain open. (nps.gov, nps.gov) The falcon story is tied to those same granite walls. Yosemite’s Raptor Protection Program, created in 2009, surveys nesting peregrine falcons and golden eagles, and the park closes some climbing areas from March 1 until chicks fledge and disperse. (nps.gov, nps.gov) Peregrine falcons vanished from Yosemite breeding records from 1949 to 1975 during the DDT-era collapse, then were rediscovered breeding on El Capitan in 1978. The species was removed from the federal endangered list in 1999, but Yosemite still treats nesting cliffs as sensitive habitat and California continues to list the bird as endangered. (nps.gov, nps.gov, nps.gov) The park’s official pages confirm the spring conditions, road status, and 2026 access rules, but I could not verify an official Yosemite source for the claimed record number of peregrine falcon fledglings this season. Yosemite’s public raptor pages describe the monitoring program and nesting closures, yet no current National Park Service release or data page I found published a 2026 fledgling total. (nps.gov, nps.gov, nps.gov)