Merced River, Yosemite National Park, California Dec 13, 2025

Merced River, Yosemite National Park, California

Every masterpiece needs a brushstroke to tie it together. For Yosemite National Park, that stroke is the Merced River—painting reflections of granite cliffs, pine forests, and waterfalls across its canvas. One of the National Wild and Scenic Rivers, this waterway begins high in the Sierra Nevada. It gathers meltwater and winds 145 miles west through Yosemite Valley into California"s Central Valley.

© Ron and Patty Thomas/Getty Images

palette

Today in History

Dec 13, 2018Iceland awaits the Yule Lads
Dec 13, 2019Taking the scenic route
Dec 13, 2020The view will stop you in your tracks
Dec 13, 2021Old Town Quito
Dec 13, 2022Hallstatt, Austria
Dec 13, 2023Svolvaer, Lofoten Islands, Norway
Dec 13, 2024Christmas market, St. Stephens Basilica, Budapest, Hungary

More Desktop Wallpapers:

Jul 7, 2022Heceta Head Light, Florence, Oregon
Mar 21, 2024International Day of Forests
Nov 29, 2025Red deer stag in De Hoge Veluwe National Park, Netherlands
Sep 9, 2019A toast to California!
Oct 12, 2023Farmers Day
Nov 13, 2023Serra de Tramuntana, Majorca, Spain
Jul 3, 2023The dog days of summer
Apr 12, 2023Earth seen from the International Space Station
Nov 2, 2021Day of the Dead
Aug 27, 2022Mount St. Helens National Volcanic Monument, Washington
Feb 28, 2025Tibetan New Year
Mar 22, 2024World Water Day
Nov 1, 2018Celebrating the Day of the Dead
Nov 6, 2023Lake Pehoé, Torres del Paine National Park, Chile
Feb 5, 2025Scottish Blackface sheep, Aberdeenshire, Scotland
Mar 2, 2018Satellite image of sand and seaweed in the Bahamas
Feb 9, 2023Lower Antelope Canyon, Arizona
Nov 23, 2020Autumn comes to Old Town
Dec 23, 2024Celebrating Festivus
Oct 23, 2022Mute swan
Jun 25, 2019Sutherland Falls in Fiordland National Park
Nov 7, 2024Vancouver Coastal Sea wolves, Great Bear Rainforest, Canada
Jun 29, 2025International Day of the Tropics
Mar 25, 2018Jan van Eyckplein in Bruges, Belgium
Dec 7, 2023National Pearl Harbor Remembrance Day
Nov 1, 2019The National Museum of the American Indian
Sep 11, 202120 years later
Oct 17, 2024Frost-covered dunes on Mars
Oct 20, 2024International Sloth Day
Jan 11, 2019Life in a North African town