United States Waterfall UNESCO World Heritage
Upper Falls of the Yellowstone River
A 33 m drop.
In numbers.
33m
Height
OpenStreetMap
25m³/s
Average flow
estimate
May–Jun
Best months
8.2MW
Water power
estimate
The water at Upper Falls of the Yellowstone River, month by month
It roars from April to May.
The fullest months: from April to May, with the snowmelt. The thinnest: from August to October and from December to February. Below −4 °C on average (from November to March): the falls can partly freeze.
- 7.7 m³/sJan
- 9.9 m³/sFeb
- 27 m³/sMar
- 66 m³/sApr
- 71 m³/sMay
- 49 m³/sJun
- 23 m³/sJul
- 12 m³/sAug
- 12 m³/sSep
- 14 m³/sOct
- 21 m³/sNov
- 16 m³/sDec
From about 7.7 m³/s in the lowest month to 71 m³/s in the highest. Best months to go, with plenty of water and pleasant days: from May to June.
Estimate: the timing comes from rain, snowmelt and evaporation (NASA POWER, 1991–2020); the amounts from the river model of HydroATLAS (WaterGAP, 1971–2000). Dams upstream can change the real flow.
Waterfall in Yellowstone National Park in Park County, Wyoming, United States
Upper Falls of the Yellowstone River is a waterfall in United States. The water falls 33 m. It lies within Yellowstone National Park. It is part of a UNESCO World Heritage site.
Getting there.
- Parking 210 m awaynearest car park in OpenStreetMap, straight line
- Yellowstone Airport (WYS)nearest airport with scheduled flights · 49 km in a straight lineCar hire at BZN airport (Bozeman)Discover Cars · Affiliate link↗
- From May to Junebest months to go (estimate)
Plan your visit
Stay, explore and get there
Some links above are affiliate links: if you book through them we may earn a commission, at no extra cost to you. It never changes what the data on this page says.
How big is it?
How big it really is.
Height of the drop as mapped in OpenStreetMap (© OpenStreetMap contributors). Buildings and the person are drawn at the same scale.
8.2 MW
About 25 m³/s falling 33 m: the power of the water as it drops.
- as much as 2.7 large wind turbines
- enough to power about 2,000 homes, if it were all turned into electricity
Power of falling water = density × gravity × flow × height. Average flow and height as shown above; an estimate.
Seen from the sky.
8 × 8 km of cloud-free satellite image, with what OpenStreetMap knows around the falls.
N
2 km
Sentinel-2 cloudless 2016 (EOX, CC BY 4.0), 8 × 8 km, north up. Points © OpenStreetMap contributors.
The line follows the river as mapped in OpenStreetMap; heights from the 30 m Copernicus model, which smooths narrow drops — the published height of the falls is the one above.
Around the falls the river drops 154 m in 2.3 km. Here the river runs about 87 m below the lower rim of its valley.
What is around.
- 26viewpointsArtist Point, Grand View, Brink of the Upper Falls and 23 more
- —waymarked walking routes
- 20car parks
- —swimming spots
- 8picnic sites
- 10toilets
- 13information boards and visitor centres
- —bus stops within 1 km
- 3other named waterfalls within 4 kmCrystal Falls, Lower Yellowstone Falls, Silver Cord Cascade
- —caves
- 13campsitesYurt Winter Camp, Cascade Lake West, Cascade Lake North and 10 more
- 8hotels, B&Bs and huts within 6 kmCanyon Lodge & Cabins, Cascade Lodge, Dunraven Lodge and 5 more
- 5restaurants and cafés within 3 km
Counted in OpenStreetMap, the map anyone can edit, up to 2 km around the falls (unless noted). A low number may just mean nobody has mapped it yet. © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL).
Weather
The weather, month by month.
| Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Afternoon °C | -6 | -5 | -1 | 3 | 10 | 17 | 23 | 22 | 17 | 7 | -1 | -6 |
| Night °C | -16 | -16 | -11 | -7 | -1 | 4 | 9 | 7 | 2 | -4 | -11 | -16 |
| Rain & snow (mm) | 81 | 75 | 77 | 82 | 81 | 70 | 37 | 40 | 52 | 69 | 79 | 91 |
| Wet days | 18 | 16 | 17 | 17 | 18 | 15 | 11 | 11 | 10 | 13 | 15 | 18 |
| Sun h/day | 4.1 | 5.6 | 6.5 | 8.0 | 8.1 | 10.1 | 12.1 | 10.3 | 8.4 | 5.5 | 3.9 | 3.2 |
| Snow on the ground (cm) | 69 | 84 | 81 | 42 | 13 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 12 | 20 | 42 |
Long-term averages 1991–2020 (NASA POWER) for a cell about 55 km wide, with temperatures carried to the height of the falls (2,322 m) at −6.5 °C per 1,000 m. Not a forecast.
Photos
Through visitors' eyes.
Recent years
Wet years and dry years
Rain of each month as a share of the 1991–2020 average. A wet season above 100 % usually means a fuller waterfall.
| Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2020 | 109% | 90% | 113% | 81% | 109% | 157% | 89% | 47% | 59% | 98% | 98% | 41% |
| 2021 | 66% | 97% | 45% | 34% | 105% | 11% | 86% | 181% | 46% | 87% | 58% | 111% |
| 2022 | 46% | 20% | 33% | 91% | 132% | 130% | 38% | 131% | 94% | 73% | 102% | 91% |
| 2023 | 54% | 86% | 125% | 63% | 63% | 167% | 67% | 248% | 119% | 118% | 50% | 56% |
| 2024 | 59% | 115% | 131% | 66% | 90% | 56% | 66% | 105% | 113% | 37% | 56% | 72% |
| 2025 | 53% | 147% | 89% | 67% | 74% | 51% | 70% | 111% | 73% | 128% | 37% | 179% |
130% wetter than usual 70% drier than usual
Compare with the waterfalls nearby.
Upper Falls of the Yellowstone River
United States
- 33 mHeight
- 25 m³/sAverage flow
- May–JunBest months
About these numbers
| Names, height, width, river | Wikidata (Q2499729) · CC0 |
|---|---|
| Height of the drop | © OpenStreetMap contributors · ODbL |
| River flow and catchment | HydroATLAS / RiverATLAS v1.0 (Linke et al. 2019) · CC BY 4.0 |
| Climate | NASA POWER, 1991–2020 |
| Relief, river profile, 3D model | Copernicus DEM GLO-30 · © DLR e.V., © Airbus Defence and Space GmbH, Copernicus/ESA |
| Paths, viewpoints, parking | © OpenStreetMap contributors · ODbL |
| Images | EOX Sentinel-2 cloudless 2016 · CC BY 4.0; Wikimedia Commons |
Every figure is an average, an estimate or a count from a public dataset. Licences and methods: data sources.
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