A 90 foot ribbon near Lake Crescent and Olympic's most popular short hike, best in the wet months when little Falls Creek is actually carrying water.
November through May
Big water window
in a typical year
Rain fed
What drives it
Falls Creek
Climatology
Data on this page
Falls Creek is ungauged
NPS Olympic
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 Marymere Falls, and when
Marymere hangs on a small creek, not a river, which makes it the most weather-sensitive falls on this page: full and elegant from November through May, modest by late summer. The rain-fed label is ours; the Park Service page describes the walk. Small-creek falls reward checking the recent weather more than the calendar.
Typical best flow: November through May
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What the agency itself says
The most popular day hike at Lake Crescent is the 0.9 mile (1.4 km) one way trail to Marymere Falls. This trail goes through old growth forest to a 90-foot (27 meter) waterfall.
Olympic National Park (National Park Service)Multnomah Falls in autumn: a Columbia Gorge falls that keeps respectable flow year round, and the standard against which most falls seasons get measured. “Columbia River Gorge National Scenic Area Multnomah Falls, fall color - 3” — Forest Service Pacific Northwest Region — Public domain
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Current flow at Marymere Falls
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
The 0.9 mile trail from Storm King Ranger Station near Lake Crescent runs through old growth, per the Park Service, and can also be picked up from Lake Crescent Lodge. It is Olympic's signature family hike and busy all summer.
A small-creek falls doing its wet-season best (Looking Glass Falls, North Carolina). Marymere is the same class of waterfall: the creek is small, so the season is everything. “Looking Glass Falls, North Carolina, April 2025” by Bill McMannis, CC BY 2.0
Common questions
Marymere Falls flow season FAQ
The reliable big-water window is November through May. Marymere hangs on a small creek, not a river, which makes it the most weather-sensitive falls on this page: full and elegant from November through May, modest by late summer. The rain-fed label is ours; the Park Service page describes the walk. Small-creek falls reward checking the recent weather more than the calendar.
Falls Creek has no USGS gauge near the falls, so the seasonal pattern above is the flow guide for Marymere Falls, and Olympic National Park (National Park Service) is the source for current conditions on the ground.
It can get close in a dry September; small creeks are honest that way. The reliable months are November through May, and a run of Olympic rain restores it almost overnight.
Olympic National Park (National Park Service). The 0.9 mile trail from Storm King Ranger Station near Lake Crescent runs through old growth, per the Park Service, and can also be picked up from Lake Crescent Lodge. It is Olympic's signature family hike and busy all summer. 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
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