9 documented waterfalls in Washington, when each one actually runs, and what the river is doing right now where a gauge exists.
9
Falls documented
each with its agency cited
7
Read live
USGS gauges on the feeding rivers
Snowmelt, Rain fed
What drives them
the season follows the driver
None
In window today
check the live readings instead
Trail status, closures and safety rules belong to each falls' managing agency, named and linked on every page.
Falls by falls
The Washington falls, their windows, and their rivers
Each card carries the typical big-water window drawn from the falls' actual driver, and the latest USGS reading on its feeding river where a gauge exists. The full page for each falls explains the season, shows today against the USGS percentile band, and quotes the managing agency on access.
Olympic's postcard falls, where the Sol Duc River splits into parallel channels and drops sideways into a mossy slot, reached by an easy walk through old growth.
A modest ledge drop on the upper Chehalis River inside a 129 acre camping park on the Willapa Hills Trail, best when the winter rains have the river up.
Live readings: USGS Water Services (National Water Information System). Instantaneous values and daily statistics services. U.S. Geological Survey data are works of the United States Government and are in the public domain.
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The pattern
Why Washington falls peak when they do
Most of Washington's documented falls run on snowmelt, so they peak when the high country lets go and fade through the summer. The mix here is 5 snowmelt, 4 rain across the 9, and 7 of them have an active USGS gauge on or near the stream.
Multnomah Falls up close. The Columbia Gorge wall seeps enough groundwater to keep its falls alive all year, but the difference between February thunder and September lace is still the whole show. “20190923-MountHood-CMR-0235 (48871760966)” — Forest Service, USDA — Public domainVernal Fall wearing a rainbow. By late summer the wide spring curtain narrows to threads; the National Park Service photographs it in both moods, and a flow calendar needs both. “Rainbow in the mist of Vernal Falls in Yosemite National Park. NPS-Madelyn Carpenter (18497149938)” — NPS Natural Resources — Public domain
Common questions
Washington waterfall season FAQ
Across Washington's documented falls the big water windows run from March to July, but they do not all peak together: a snowmelt falls and a rain fed creek in the same state keep different calendars. Each falls page carries its own window and the agency sentence it came from.
None of the falls on this page is inside its typical big-water window today. That is the calendar talking, not the rivers: the live gauge readings above show what each feeding river is actually carrying right now.
No. They are US Geological Survey gauges on the feeding rivers, each named on its falls page with whether it sits upstream or downstream. A gauge reads the river's trend, which is what decides how the falls looks; it is not a camera at the brink.
The managing agency for each falls, which every page names, quotes and links. Trail status, closures and safety rules are the agency's to set, and its word overrides anything a calendar suggests.
Tahquamenon Falls running amber with bog tannin. Fifty thousand gallons a second at spring peak, and still one of the most reliable big falls east of the Mississippi the rest of the year. “2009-0618-TahquamenonFalls” by Bobak Ha'Eri, CC BY 3.0
Cumberland Falls, the Niagara of the South, throwing a daytime rainbow. On bright full moon nights the same mist carries a moonbow, one of the few reliably visible in the western hemisphere. “Cumberland Falls rainbow” by James St. John, CC BY 2.0
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Windows are typical-year climatology from each falls' driver, not forecasts. Live readings and percentile bands are USGS data, public domain; where a page says a river is above or below typical, that comparison is ours and is labelled. Access and safety belong to each falls' managing agency, named on its page. National picture →
