River
Merced River
233 km from source to mouth · United States.
United StatesFlows into San Joaquin River
In numbers
Length
233km
Average flow
41m³/s
Basin
4,400km²
Drop
2,268m
from 2,288 m to 20 m
Country
1
The journey
From source to mouth
233 km of river and 27 stops on the way: 1 towns and cities on its banks, dams, bridges and the tributaries that feed it.
- 0 kmSourceat 2,288 m
- 14 kmBunnell Cascade
- 22 kmNevada Fall181 m
- 23 kmVernal Fall97 m
- 23 kmVernal Fall Bridge
- 25 kmHappy Isles Bridge
- 26 kmClark Bridge
- 27 kmSugar Pine Bridge
- 27 kmStaircase Falls
- 27 kmStoneman Bridge
- 27 kmAhwahnee Bridge
- 27 kmHousekeeping Footbridge
- 28 kmRoyal Arch Cascade
- 28 kmTenaya Creektributary
- 29 kmSentinel Bridge
- 30 kmYosemite Falls739 m
- 31 kmSwinging Bridge
- 32 kmSentinel Fall
- 34 kmHorsetail Fall650 m
- 35 kmEl Capitan Bridge
- 36 kmYosemite Valley
- 36 kmBridalveil Fall189 m
- 36 kmRibbon Fall
- 39 kmPohono Bridge
- 44 kmWildcat Falls
- 52 kmForesta Falls
- 136 kmLake McClure19 km²
- 201 kmLivingston13,902 people
- 233 kmSan Joaquin Riverat 20 m
Water level along the river (RiverATLAS; the height is exaggerated). Towns: GeoNames and Wikidata; bridges, dams and tributaries: Wikidata.
145-mile (233 km)-long tributary of the San Joaquin River in central California
At the mouth it carries 41 m³/s on average: an Olympic pool every 61 seconds. It drops from 2,288 m to 20 m, 9.7 m per kilometre on average. Its basin covers 4,400 km², about the size of CV. 47,000 people live in it. Highest water: from January to February; lowest: from June to September. It is heavily dammed: reservoirs can hold 116% of a year's flow.
Where to start
- LivingstonLargest city on its banks · 13,902 people
- Merced Regional Macready Field (MCE)Nearest airport with scheduled flights, 22 km from the cityCar hire at SJC airport (San Jose)Discover Cars · Affiliate link↗
- On the water8 ferry piers, marinas, boat rentals and boat ramps along the river (OpenStreetMap)
- From May to June and from August to OctoberThe best months to visit
Merced River, month by month
Highest water: from January to February
Lowest water: from June to September. Best months to visit: from May to June and from August to October.
From about 3.2 m³/s in the lowest month to 110 m³/s in the highest. An estimate: the monthly flow is modelled from the lowest and highest months of WaterGAP (RiverATLAS, 1971–2000) and the rain and snow along the river (WorldClim). Dams change the real rhythm. The chip is the average air temperature; below it, the month's rain.
Plan the trip
Plan the trip: boat trips, a bed by the river, a car
Some links above are affiliate links: if you book through them we may earn a commission, at no extra cost to you. It never changes what the data on this page says.
The basin
Merced River: the basin in numbers
3,604 km² of land send their water to this river. This is what lives on it.
- 47,000people live in the basin
- 13/km²people per km²
- 1,277maverage altitude of the basin
- 742mmof rain a year (basin average)
- 10.8°Caverage air temperature
- 39%protected areas
- 0.6%covered by lakes
- 1.5km³held in reservoirs
What covers the basin
- 74% Forest
- 10% Cropland
- 18% Pasture
- 1% Towns and cities
RiverATLAS (HydroATLAS v1.0, CC BY 4.0): land cover, people, protected areas, glaciers and dams over the whole basin upstream of the mouth.
Along the river
Merced River: what you find on the way
- 28WaterfallsBunnell Cascade, Cascade Fall, Nevada Fall and 25 more
- 8Boat rampsBagby Boat Launch and 7 more
From OpenStreetMap, within 1.5 km of the river. Not mapped is not the same as not there.
Cross-checked with our atlases
Merced River in our other atlases
What our sister atlases know about the waterfalls on this river, the lakes it flows through, the beaches at its mouth, the mountains where it rises and the islands off its mouth.
12waterfalls on the riverCascadyas
1lake on its wayLakeyas
37mountains at the sourcePeakyas
Waterfalls (12)
On the river, by Cascadyas
- Nevada Fallkm 19181m
- Vernal Fallkm 2097m
- Staircase Fallskm 24
- Royal Arch Cascadekm 24
- Yosemite Fallskm 26739m
- Horsetail Fallkm 30650m
- Bridalveil Fallkm 32189m
- Ribbon Fallkm 32
4 more on CascadyasCascadyas is coming soonOpen Cascadyas ↗
Lakes and reservoirs (1)
Lakes it flows through, by Lakeyas
- Lake McClurekm 11919km²
Lakeyas is coming soonOpen Lakeyas ↗
Mountains at the source (37)
Within 15 km of the source, by Peakyas
- Mount Lyell7.9 km away · prominence 587 m3,997m
- Mount Ritter13 km away · prominence 1,206 m4,010m
- Banner Peak13 km away · prominence 261 m3,945m
- Mount Maclure7.4 km away3,928m
- Rodgers Peak8.4 km away · prominence 225 m3,958m
- Mount Florence5.1 km away3,831m
- Simmons Peak8.1 km away3,809m
- Parsons Peak9.1 km away · prominence 190 m3,704m
29 more on PeakyasOpen Peakyas ↗
From space
The source and the mouth, seen from orbit
Sentinel-2 cloudless 2016 by EOX IT Services GmbH (contains modified Copernicus Sentinel data 2016), CC BY 4.0. The glowing line is the river as drawn by RiverATLAS.
Photos
Merced River in pictures
Tributaries
Where it flows, and what flows into it
It flows into
San Joaquin RiverUnited States564 km1,200 m³/sTributaries (4)
Also: Tenaya Creek, South Fork Merced River, Cascade Creek, North Fork Merced River
In the same basin
Where these numbers come from
| Name, length, places | Wikidata (Q1470035) · CC0 |
|---|---|
| Course, profile, basin | RiverATLAS v1.0 (HydroATLAS, Linke et al. 2019) · CC BY 4.0 — followed from the source to the mouth given by Wikidata |
| Flow | WaterGAP (RiverATLAS), 1971–2000 · CC BY 4.0 |
| Climate along the river | WorldClim (RiverATLAS), 1970–2000 · CC BY 4.0 |
| Towns, bridges, dams | Wikidata · CC0; GeoNames · CC BY 4.0 |
| Along the river | © OpenStreetMap contributors · ODbL |
| Images | EOX Sentinel-2 cloudless 2016 · CC BY 4.0; Wikimedia Commons |
| Our other atlases | Cascadyas, Lakeyas, Peakyas — Wikidata · CC0; © OpenStreetMap contributors · ODbL; GeoNames · CC BY 4.0; HydroLAKES · CC BY 4.0; NOAA OISST |
Every source and licence is on the data sources page.
The family
Do you prefer beaches, lakes, mountains, waterfalls, islands, rivers or canyons?
Same idea, other landscapes: field atlases built on open data, month by month, in seven languages.
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