Washington's official state waterfall: a 200 foot plunge into an Ice Age bowl, huge with spring runoff and honestly skinny by late summer.
March through mid June
Big water window
in a typical year
Snowmelt
What drives it
Palouse River
Live USGS
Data on this page
gauge 13351000
WA 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 Palouse Falls, and when
The Palouse River drains wheat country with modest mountains behind it, so the falls rides the spring runoff hard: March through mid June brings the muddy, thunderous version, and by August the river at Hooper can drop to a few dozen cfs and the falls to a ribbon. Both are worth seeing; only one of them is loud. The snowmelt label is our classification of a runoff-driven basin, not the park's.
Typical best flow: March through mid June
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What the agency itself says
Carved more than 13,000 years ago, the Palouse River runs through a narrow cataract and drops 200 feet at Palouse Falls into a churning bowl. From there, the water current moves swiftly through a winding gorge of columnar basalt, to its southern end at the Snake River.
Palouse Falls State Park Heritage Site (Washington State Parks)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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Right now
What Palouse River is doing today
Flow at the gauge now
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USGS median for Oct 15
Not published
Gauge: USGS 13351000 Palouse River at Hooper WA, upstream of the falls on the same river. 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
Washington State Parks has permanently closed all trails into the canyon and to the base; the falls is now strictly an overlook visit. Parking is extremely limited with long waits on weekends, by the park's own description, and the site is remote from services and first responders.
Palouse Falls with the spring runoff on. The late August version of this exact view is a narrow ribbon; the season section on this page tells you which one you will get. “04-15-14-palouse” — Dsdugan — CC0
Common questions
Palouse Falls flow season FAQ
The reliable big-water window is March through mid June. The Palouse River drains wheat country with modest mountains behind it, so the falls rides the spring runoff hard: March through mid June brings the muddy, thunderous version, and by August the river at Hooper can drop to a few dozen cfs and the falls to a ribbon. Both are worth seeing; only one of them is loud. The snowmelt label is our classification of a runoff-driven basin, not the park's.
This page reads the USGS gauge on Palouse River (Palouse River at Hooper WA, upstream of the falls on the same river) 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 has come close in hot, dry late summers; the upstream gauge regularly reads under 30 cfs in August against thousands in April. The falls itself keeps a thread, but the spectacle is a spring event.
Palouse Falls State Park Heritage Site (Washington State Parks). Washington State Parks has permanently closed all trails into the canyon and to the base; the falls is now strictly an overlook visit. Parking is extremely limited with long waits on weekends, by the park's own description, and the site is remote from services and first responders. 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: "All trails into the canyon and base of Palouse Falls are permanently closed." That sentence is Palouse Falls State Park Heritage Site (Washington State Parks)'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
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 Palouse Falls State Park Heritage Site (Washington State Parks). National picture: waterfall season across the US → Hero image: “04-15-14-palouse” — Dsdugan — CC0
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