Guide To The Best Waterfalls in Yellowstone National Park

This guide to the best waterfalls in Yellowstone National Park is our comprehensive summary of the falls in the world’s first national park.

Indeed, we’re showing love for these beautiful features by focusing on them in this page. That said, they generally don’t seem to get quite the same notoriety as Yellowstone’s other signature features like predictable geysers or the safari-like wildlife experience.

Nonetheless, we’ve found that the Yellowstone waterfalls gave us the perfect excuse to explore as much of the park as we reasonably could. As a result, we still managed to get the desired diversity of experiences in this pursuit!

Maybe the info you find here can help you get the most out of your Yellowstone National Park experience!

In any case, we’ve compiled a fairly comprehensive survey of these waterfalls that we would like to share with you, which you can see below.

Yellowstone Frontcountry Waterfalls by the Grand Loop Road

Of all the waterfalls in Yellowstone National Park, the ones we mention here require the least amount of effort.

In other words, these waterfalls sit right off the figure-8 Grand Loop Road or short spur roads branching off of it.

Therefore, I tend to refer to this region as the “Frontcountry” because you need not explore far from “civilization”.

So it shouldn’t surprise us that the waterfalls in the frontcountry tend to receive the most visitation (i.e. crowds).

Below we’ve provided a summary of the major waterfalls in the Yellowstone Frontcountry.

For more details, directions, photos, videos, maps, pointers, and all the different ways to experience each of them, click on its corresponding reference link.

Lower Falls of the Yellowstone River

• Best Time to Visit: Year-round
• Difficulty: Easy to Moderate
• Length: As little as zero distance (lots of roadside views), or about 1-mile round-trip to the end of the Uncle Tom’s Trail
• Reference: Lower Falls page

Upper Falls of the Yellowstone River

• Best Time to Visit: Year-round
• Difficulty: Easy
• Length: As little as zero distance (lots of roadside views)
• Reference: Upper Falls page

Tower Fall

• Best Time to Visit: Year-round
• Difficulty: Easy
• Length: Minimal walk to overlook or one-mile round-trip hike to base has been closed indefinitely
• Reference: Tower Fall page

Crystal Falls

• Best Time to Visit: Usually best from May through July
• Difficulty: Easy
• Length: Roughly 1/4-mile round-trip to a close-up view
• Reference: Crystal Falls page

Gibbon Falls

• Best Time to Visit: Year-round
• Difficulty: Easy
• Length: About 0.6 miles round-trip
• Reference: Gibbon Falls page

Undine Falls

• Best Time to Visit: Year-round
• Difficulty: Easy
• Length: Roadside
• Reference: Undine Falls page

Rustic Falls

• Best Time to Visit: Usually best from April through June
• Difficulty: Easy
• Length: Roadside
• Reference: Rustic Falls page

Virginia Cascade

• Best Time to Visit: Usually best from May through July
• Difficulty: Easy
• Length: Roadside
• Reference: Virginia Cascade page

Kepler Cascades

• Best Time to Visit: Year-round
• Difficulty: Easy
• Length: Roadside
• Reference: Kepler Cascades page

Firehole Falls

• Best Time to Visit: Year-round
• Difficulty: Easy
• Length: Roadside
• Reference: Firehole Falls page

Other Yellowstone Frontcountry Waterfalls – requiring hikes off Grand Loop Road, or near Entrance Roads

In addition to the low-effort waterfall attractions right off the figure-8 Grand Loop Road mentioned in the section above, we’ve also spotted other waterfalls in the Yellowstone Frontcountry.

The waterfalls we’ve placed in this category either required hikes that began from the Grand Loop Road.

Or, the waterfalls existed right off one of Yellowstone’s Entrance Roads (i.e. they weren’t on the figure-8 Grand Loop Road itself).

Thus, these Frontcountry Waterfalls tended to draw smaller crowds since they tended to require a little more effort to reach.

Sometimes even these close-to-civilization waterfalls could yield quieter and more serene moments for the slightly increased effort.

And in my mind, that’s the very reason why they are worth experiencing.

Below we’ve provided a summary of waterfalls in the Yellowstone Frontcountry that we consider to belong in this category.

For more details, directions, photos, videos, maps, pointers, and all the different ways to experience each of them, click on its corresponding reference link.

Fairy Falls

• Best Time to Visit: Usually May through August
• Difficulty: Moderate
• Length: About 5.6 miles round-trip, including the Grand Prismatic Spring Overlook detour (allow at least 2.5 hours)
• Reference: Fairy Falls page

Mystic Falls

• Best Time to Visit: Year-round
• Difficulty: Moderate
• Length: As little as 2.4 miles round-trip or 4.1-mile loop (allow at least 90 minutes)
• Reference: Mystic Falls page

Osprey Falls

• Best Time to Visit: Year-round
• Difficulty: Strenuous
• Length: About 8 miles round-trip (allow at least 4 hours)
• Reference: Osprey Falls page

Silver Cord Cascade

• Best Time to Visit: Usually from May through July
• Difficulty: Easy
• Length: About 2 miles round-trip (allow at least an hour)
• Reference: Silver Cord Cascade page

Wraith Falls

• Best Time to Visit: Usually from May through August
• Difficulty: Easy
• Length: About 1 mile round-trip (allow at least 30 minutes)
• Reference: Wraith Falls page

Lost Creek Falls

• Best Time to Visit: Usually best between April through June
• Difficulty: Easy
• Length: About 0.8 miles round trip (allow at least 30 minutes)
• Reference: Lost Creek Falls page

Lewis Falls

• Best Time to Visit: Year-round
• Difficulty: Easy
• Length: Roadside views
• Reference: Lewis Falls page

Moose Falls

• Best Time to Visit: Year-round
• Difficulty: Easy
• Length: About 0.1-mile round-trip/li>
• Reference: Moose Falls page

Crecelius Cascade

• Best Time to Visit: Usually between May through July
• Difficulty: Easy
• Length: Roadside views
• Reference: Crecelius Cascade page

Barronette Peak Waterfalls

• Best Time to Visit: Usually between May through June
• Difficulty: Easy
• Length: Roadside views
• Reference: Barronette Peak Waterfalls page

Yellowstone Waterfalls in the Backcountry

While the Yellowstone Frontcountry waterfalls can get busy, we’ve found that to truly find tranquility and solitude, you have to venture into the Yellowstone Backcountry.

In particular, we’re talking about Yellowstone’s Cascade Corner, which is also known as the Bechler Region.

Visiting waterfalls in this region require a good deal of wilderness preparation because no roads cross through the southwest of the national park.

Indeed, you have to backpack or go on really long hikes (with possibly an unbridged river crossing or two) while also trekking through grizzly bear habitat.

Yet, I’ve found wild experiences like this to yield some of the most satisfying waterfalling experiences you can find anywhere.

That’s the primary motivation for going way off the beaten path to pursue some of Yellowstone’s most impressive waterfalls.

While our sampling of the backcountry waterfalls may be limited, that compels us to come back and visit more.

In any case, below we’ve provided a summary of waterfalls in the Yellowstone Backcountry.

For more details, directions, photos, videos, maps, pointers, and all the different ways to experience each of them, click on its corresponding reference link.

Union Falls

• Best Time to Visit: Year-round, but Fall River crossing more manageable from July through October
• Difficulty: Strenuous
• Length: About 15 miles round-trip with optional mile-long side excursion to Ousel Pool (allow the full day)
• Reference: Union Falls page

Cave Falls

• Best Time to Visit: Year-round, but likely most accessible in late Spring through early Fall
• Difficulty: Easy
• Length: Less than 1/4-mile round trip
• Reference: Cave Falls page

Terraced Falls

• Best Time to Visit: Year-round but usually most accessible in Summer
• Difficulty: Moderate
• Length: About 4 miles round-trip (allow at least 2 hours)
• Reference: Terraced Falls page

“Cascade Creek Falls”

• Best Time to Visit: Year-round, but usually most accessible in Summer
• Difficulty: Easy
• Length: About 1/4-mile round-trip with some mild scrambling (allow at least 45 minutes)
• Reference: “Cascade Creek Falls” page

Takeaway

We’ve always known that Yellowstone National Park was very popular ever since our first visit back in June 2004.

However, its popularity seemed to have continued to boom, and on a return visit in August 2017, we saw firsthand just how much more popular the park had become.

That said, this park didn’t feel as overwhelming with the crowds as say Yosemite National Park because Yellowstone’s attractions were more spread out.

You could say the same thing about Yellowstone’s Waterfalls.

While the obvious spots like in Old Faithful and Canyon perhaps draw the most people, we had plenty of opportunities to go on a hike and get a more tranquil experience.

The waterfalls gave us the goal we needed to pursue them while letting Nature sink into us.

And for that, we still maintain that waterfalling is the way to travel no matter where in the world you go…