“twice as tall as Niagara!”
Yellowstone Falls consist of two major waterfalls on the Yellowstone River, within Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming, United States. As the Yellowstone river flows north from Yellowstone Lake, it leaves the Hayden Valley and plunges first over Upper Yellowstone Falls and then a quarter mile downstream over Lower Yellowstone Falls, at which point it then enters the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone, which is up to 1,000 feet deep. The brink of the upper falls marks the junction between a hard rhyolite lava flow and weaker glassy lava that has been more heavily eroded. The lower falls (44°43′05″N 110°29′46″W) are approximately 308 feet (94 m) high, or almost two times as high as Niagara. The volume of water is in no way comparable to Niagara as the width of the Yellowstone River before it goes over the lower falls is 70 feet (22 m), compared to Niagara which is a half mile (800 m). The lower falls descend from the 590,000 year old Canyon Rhyolite lava flow. The lower falls of the Yellowstone is still the largest volume major waterfall in the Rocky Mountain of the United States. The volume of water flowing over the falls can vary from 63,500 USgal/s ) at peak runoff to 5,000 USgal/s in the fall.
If it's possible, do the hike to bottom of lower falls. It's a lot of stairs and it's usually wet, but you'll forget all of that once you get to the bottom.
Old Faithful gets all the press, but this is truly majestic. Turn off at the south rim and follow the road to the parking lot. There are tons of incredible vantage points from there for all walking abilities.
Early morning light and you can see a rainbow in the falls! It looks really cool but expect there to be a few other photographers there!
Great view I would say the best place in the park to go. However I will discourage anyone wanting to take a trip down from the north side as when I did it didn’t seem much of a different view than it was from the top.
Lots of overlooks from above and below if you're able to walk down a stairway to the base. Misty and lovely!
We did the walk down to the top of the Lower Falls, and it was well worth the effort - it's a big elevation change, but the views when you get to the falls are amazing. Check out the falls from this vantage, then walk around the canyon rim to the north and view the falls from the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone viewpoints. Very impressive and a must-visit while in Yellowstone!
We concur that this site is more impressive than Old Faithful, especially during the spring runoff!
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Yellowstone Falls
Hours
- Sun - Sat: 12:00 am - 11:59 pm
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