Yellowstone National Park Waterfalls

Firehole Falls

The pictures of Yellowstone in this post are from June 2013. These are most of the major waterfalls in Yellowstone that are located on, or within 20 minutes hiking distance, of the Grand Loop. The waterfalls here account for less than 1 percent of the total waterfalls in the park. If you only see one thing in Yellowstone, you have to see upper and lower Yellowstone Falls. The view from the rim of the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone is indescribably beautiful.

The waterfalls in Yellowstone are only a small fraction of the major features in the park. The parking lot for the Old Faithful geyser is usually filled to capacity with cars, campers and tour buses. I prefer the waterfall hikes because the crowds are usually thin. On the 20 minute hike to Wraith Falls, we ran into a black bear, an elk and a coyote. There were literally more animals using the trail than people.

I've only been to Yellowstone twice and I've never had an opportunity to do any back-country hiking or camping. To be honest, I don't know if I would. We saw so many bears that I'm not sure I would enjoy it because I would be nervous the whole time. By the time we were back home in Orange County, we had driven the equivalent of a coast to coast cross country road trip. We white-water rafted on the Snake River. We drank beer with cowboys in Cody Wyoming. We camped on a desert lake under the Milky Way. It was a great trip and we saw a ton of amazing things.  One thing I do regret about rushing through Yellowstone this time is that we didn't get to do a few of the longer hikes on our itinerary. 2 days in Yellowstone is barely enough time to drive the loop.

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Hidden Falls at Jenny Lake. Grand Teton National Park

Hidden Falls. Grand Teton National Park

Hidden Falls is easily the best waterfall in Grand Teton National Park.  The falls are located on the western side of Jenny Lake in Grand Teton National Park in Wyoming. The shortest route to the falls is to hike around the southern part of Jenny Lake on the Jenny Lake trail. You can expect to see a wide variety of wildlife on the trail. We saw chipmunks, a coyote, several red-bellied marmots and a wide variety of colorful birds I couldn’t name. The falls are listed at around 100 feet tall, but the cascades go on for miles and the sheer volume of water on the river tops anything you'll find outside of Yellowstone. 

A recent landslide wiped out the lower part of Jenny Lake  trail that leads to the falls, so a new trail had to be cut into the side of the mountain. To bypass the landslide, the new trail adds a significant amount of elevation gain to the hike.  However, the new trail also offers a birds eye view of the Lake.   Most descriptions online put the hike at about 6 miles total roundtrip. We finished the hike in a little under 3 hours. You can shave 2 miles off the hike by taking the ferry across Jenny Lake.

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