A 167 foot drop over 400 million year old bedrock between Cazenovia and Chittenango, on a creek big enough to keep the falls running year round.
Mid March through mid June
Big water window
in a typical year
Snowmelt
What drives it
Chittenango Creek
Live USGS
Data on this page
gauge 04244000
NY State Parks
Managed by
their rules govern
Trail status, closures and safety rules belong to each falls' managing agency, named and linked on every page.
The season
What fills Chittenango Falls, and when
Chittenango Creek carries more water than most gorge creeks in the region, so the 167 foot falls stays presentable through summer while still peaking with the mid March to mid June runoff. The live gauge downstream reads the same creek. Our window is editorial; the park quotes the falls, not a calendar.
Typical best flow: Mid March through mid June
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What the agency itself says
A picturesque 167-foot waterfall is the main attraction of Chittenango Falls State Park!
Chittenango Falls State Park (New York State Parks)What a snowmelt year looks like at full send: Palouse Falls in mid April, when the Palouse River is still carrying the melt. The same falls in late August is a ribbon. Timing is most of the visit. “04-15-14-palouse” — Dsdugan — CC0
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Right now
What Chittenango Creek is doing today
Flow at the gauge now
Loading
USGS median for Oct 15
Not published
Gauge: USGS 04244000 Chittenango Creek near Chittenango NY, downstream of the falls on the same creek. The gauge reads the river, not the brink of the falls, so treat it as the trend line rather than a turnstile.
Source: 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. Gauge verified 2026-08-27.
The other half of the story: the same Palouse Falls in late August. Nothing is wrong; this is what a snowmelt river does every year once the melt is spent. “Palouse Falls 20100829” by Mark Wagner, CC BY-SA 2.5
Getting there
Access, in the agency's words and ours
The park is open year round sunrise to sunset with restrictions, per New York State Parks; a gorge trail descends to a footbridge view and returns up the far side.
Eastern gorge water (Blackwater Falls, West Virginia). Chittenango's 167 foot drop rides the same runoff calendar in central New York. “Blackwater Falls (15437499241)” by Benjamin Smith from United States, CC BY 2.0
Common questions
Chittenango Falls flow season FAQ
The reliable big-water window is Mid March through mid June. Chittenango Creek carries more water than most gorge creeks in the region, so the 167 foot falls stays presentable through summer while still peaking with the mid March to mid June runoff. The live gauge downstream reads the same creek. Our window is editorial; the park quotes the falls, not a calendar.
This page reads the USGS gauge on Chittenango Creek (Chittenango Creek near Chittenango NY, downstream of the falls on the same creek) live in your browser, and shows the latest flow next to the median USGS publishes for today's date, so you can see where today sits in the year. The gauge reads the river, not the brink, so treat it as the trend rather than a turnstile.
It leans out in dry spells but rarely embarrasses itself; the creek's size sees to that. Spring doubles the show and adds the mist.
Chittenango Falls State Park (New York State Parks). The park is open year round sunrise to sunset with restrictions, per New York State Parks; a gorge trail descends to a footbridge view and returns up the far side. Trail status, closures and safety rules are theirs, and their page is linked on this one; nothing here overrides what they publish.
Yosemite Falls in May, running on snowmelt that will be gone by late summer. The National Park Service tells visitors the falls can be dry by August, which is why every falls page here starts from its watershed. “Tourists below Yosemite Falls (39832011431)” by Mike McBey, CC BY 2.0
The most famous falls on the continent runs on a 1950 treaty: 100,000 cfs must come over during tourist season daytime hours, half that the rest of the time, with the balance sent to power plants.
A 215 foot single plunge past 400 foot gorge cliffs near Ithaca, taller than Niagara, biggest with the Finger Lakes spring runoff and thin by late summer.
New York's tallest waterfall by the DEC's own account, a 260 foot two-tier drop in the Catskills painted by the Hudson River School and treated with respect by everyone who reads the DEC's warnings.
Flow windows are typical-year climatology drawn from the driver and the agency language quoted above, not forecasts. Live readings and per-date percentiles are U.S. Geological Survey data, public domain; the above-or-below-typical line is our comparison and is labelled as such. Access, trail and safety information belongs to Chittenango Falls State Park (New York State Parks). National picture: waterfall season across the US → Hero image: “Blackwater Falls (15437499241)” by Benjamin Smith from United States, CC BY 2.0
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