Longfellow's 53 foot city waterfall in Minneapolis, swinging between spring torrent, drought-summer trickle and celebrated frozen curtain, with a gauge a few hundred yards upstream.
Mid March through June
Big water window
in a typical year
Rain fed
What drives it
Minnehaha Creek
Live USGS
Data on this page
gauge 05289800
Minneapolis 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 Minnehaha Falls, and when
Minnehaha Creek carries whatever the Lake Minnetonka watershed and city rain deliver, which can be a lot in April and nearly nothing in a dry August: the upstream gauge has read below 3 cfs in late summer against hundreds at melt. Winter's frozen falls is a Minneapolis institution the park board manages with cordons rather than encouragement, per its own release.
Typical best flow: Mid March through June
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What the agency itself says
Minnehaha Falls and the land surrounding it became one of the first state parks in the United States when it was purchased by the state of Minnesota in 1889.
Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board (Minnehaha Regional Park)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
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.
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 falls anchors Minnehaha Regional Park, one of the country's oldest state-designated park sites, per the park board; ongoing work on the south viewing areas has limited some access, with the north staircase remaining open.
A clean urban-scale plunge (Looking Glass Falls, North Carolina). Minnehaha performs the same drop in the middle of Minneapolis, weather permitting, and the gauge upstream says exactly what the weather is permitting. “Looking Glass Falls, North Carolina, April 2025” by Bill McMannis, CC BY 2.0
Common questions
Minnehaha Falls flow season FAQ
The reliable big-water window is Mid March through June. Minnehaha Creek carries whatever the Lake Minnetonka watershed and city rain deliver, which can be a lot in April and nearly nothing in a dry August: the upstream gauge has read below 3 cfs in late summer against hundreds at melt. Winter's frozen falls is a Minneapolis institution the park board manages with cordons rather than encouragement, per its own release.
This page reads the USGS gauge on Minnehaha Creek (Minnehaha Creek at Hiawatha Ave in Minneapolis MN, a few hundred yards upstream of the falls) 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.
Yes, drought summers have reduced it to a whisper, and the gauge on this page shows it plainly. Spring and after storms it earns every line of the poem.
Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board (Minnehaha Regional Park). The falls anchors Minnehaha Regional Park, one of the country's oldest state-designated park sites, per the park board; ongoing work on the south viewing areas has limited some access, with the north staircase remaining open. Trail status, closures and safety rules are theirs, and their page is linked on this one; nothing here overrides what they publish.
In their own words: "Because of moving water, boulders, slippery slopes and other unsafe conditions, it is unsafe to access the base of the falls any time of year." That sentence is Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board (Minnehaha Regional Park)'s, quoted verbatim, and their page is the place to check before you go.
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 gateway falls of Minnesota's North Shore: Upper, Middle and Lower Falls stacked through a basalt gorge, roaring at melt and flashing with every storm.
The 60 foot centerpiece of Tettegouche State Park, the tallest falls entirely inside Minnesota, on a short steep river that lives and dies with the weather.
Minnesota's tallest waterfall, 120 feet of border-straddling wild water on the Pigeon River, in a state park run cooperatively with the Grand Portage Band.
Places to stay