Vernal Fall Comfort Station Open Today

Due to high turbidity (water clarity) in the Merced River, the comfort station at the Vernal Fall Bridge is temporarily closed. Drinking water is still available at the fountain by the bridge as long as water in storage lasts.

I was in the Valley 5/8 to 5/12 and I have never seen the Merced so cloudy/muddy looking. I've been in the Valley about that time of year for decades now and this was definitely the cloudiest/muddiest looking I'd ever seen. Even years when the water was higher than it was weeks ago it was still clearer those years than it was 5/8-5/12.

I wonder if the high turbidity is due to last winter being the first wet/snow year since the 2014 Meadow Fire that burned through the northern portion of the Merced River watershed above Vernal Fall. I would have thought the water would have been turbid last spring too due to that fire, but the spring runoff last year was a lot less due to the drought.

---

Leave No Trace

Good point!

The Vernal Fall comfort station and drinking fountain will reopen today. The facilities were recently closed due to high turbidity (lack of water clarity) in the Merced River caused by the high spring runoff through the 2014 Meadow Fire burn area in Little Yosemite Valley.