Plan with
Confidence
This trail contains steep drop-offs that are extremely dangerous for children. In 2014, a young girl lost her footing, stepped off this trail, and plunged 550 feet into the canyon.
Path Type
There and Back
From the Brink of Lower Falls parking area, the trail (which technically doesn't begin until the end of the first switchback) drops more than 300 feet in 0.4 miles. This very popular trail is often quite crowded. It is even more crowed since the direction of the one-way North Rim Road was changed making this the first stop on the road. Now, many visitors stop here thinking its a short way to the viewpoint and are unprepared for this steep, somewhat difficult trail. So expect a slow hike down and an even slower hike back up. But the views at the bottom are amazing, making it a must-do hike for many.Thanks to guidebook author, Tom Carter, for sharing this trail description. To learn more about visiting Yellowstone, check out his book, Day Hiking Yellowstone.
In 1887, Owen Wister, gathering stories and inspiration later used in his classic western novel, The Virginian, described Lower Falls this way: "This is the most beautiful thing I have ever seen. The water falls . . . 300 feet into a caldron of rock . . . the spray floats out into a rainbow that melts away into many-coloured moss, until you cannot discern which is moss and which rainbow."
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