A 224 foot single plunge over lichen-splashed columnar basalt in the western Columbia Gorge, minutes from the historic highway and at its best in the wet half of the year.
November through April
Big water window
in a typical year
Rain fed
What drives it
Latourell Creek
Climatology
Data on this page
Latourell Creek is ungauged
Oregon 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 Latourell Falls, and when
Latourell Creek is a small rain-catchment stream without Multnomah's spring system, so this falls tracks Gorge weather directly: full and loud from the first November soakers through April, slender by late summer. The chartreuse lichen on the basalt is a year-round constant that photographs best against the winter water.
Typical best flow: November through April
JFMAMJJASOND
What the agency itself says
Visitors can take a short walk underneath an historic 1914 bridge to the base of Lower Latourell Falls, a 224-foot plunge over columnar basalt splashed with chartreuse-colored lichen.
Rain-fed falls carry the color of their watershed: Blackwater Falls runs amber with tannin from spruce and hemlock bogs upstream, and its volume tracks the last month of Appalachian weather. “Blackwater Falls (15437499241)” by Benjamin Smith from United States, CC BY 2.0
Getting there
Access, in the agency's words and ours
A short walk from the parking area passes under the historic 1914 bridge to the base of the lower falls, per Oregon State Parks, and a 2 mile loop climbs to the upper falls along the creek.
Columbia Gorge basalt and falling water (Multnomah Falls, a few miles east, photographed by the Forest Service). Latourell keeps the same wet-season rhythm one drainage over. “20190923-MountHood-CMR-0235 (48871760966)” — Forest Service, USDA — Public domain
Common questions
Latourell Falls flow season FAQ
The reliable big-water window is November through April. Latourell Creek is a small rain-catchment stream without Multnomah's spring system, so this falls tracks Gorge weather directly: full and loud from the first November soakers through April, slender by late summer. The chartreuse lichen on the basalt is a year-round constant that photographs best against the winter water.
Latourell Creek has no USGS gauge near the falls, so the seasonal pattern above is the flow guide for Latourell Falls, and Guy W. Talbot State Park (Oregon Parks and Recreation Department) is the source for current conditions on the ground.
It never quite vanishes, but late summer reduces it to a narrow ribbon. The reliable big version runs November through April, and it responds to any Gorge storm within a day or two.
Guy W. Talbot State Park (Oregon Parks and Recreation Department). A short walk from the parking area passes under the historic 1914 bridge to the base of the lower falls, per Oregon State Parks, and a 2 mile loop climbs to the upper falls along the creek. 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 177 foot curtain you can walk behind, headliner of Silver Falls State Park's Trail of Ten Falls and the centerpiece of Oregon's largest state park.
A two-tier plunge over a wall of columnar basalt on the North Umpqua, with flow smoothed year round by the hydroelectric diversion whose wooden pipe lines the access road.
Oregon's second highest single drop at 286 feet, an easy 50 yards from the parking lot in summer and a snowshoe destination when the observation site closes for winter.
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 Guy W. Talbot State Park (Oregon Parks and Recreation Department). National picture: waterfall season across the US → Hero image: “20190923-MountHood-CMR-0235 (48871760966)” — Forest Service, USDA — Public domain
Places to stay