Notes Towards a Holistic Index of Waterfalls

Most Beautiful and Frustrating:

McWay Falls, Big Sur, CA

One of the few constantly running beach waterfalls in California. McWay Falls at the Julia Pfeiffer Burns State Park is located on a private beach surrounded by fences and signs proclaiming heavy fines for anyone who attempts to get closer than 500 feet.

Loudest Frog Chorus:

La Mina Falls, El Yunque National Forest, Puerto Rico

13 Species of Coqui frog live within El Yunque rainforest. Their competing choirs serenade you as you swim  in the series of waterfalls that run through the park.

Most Likely to be Bestrewn with Rainbows:

Vernal Falls, Yosemite National Park, CA 

If the sun is out, there will be rainbows on this frothy mist producing show off. Busy trail in the high season, lots of tourists breaking bones on the wet rocks while volunteer medics and park rangers shake their heads at the overwhelming variety of improper footwear on display. Fat squirrels and chipmunks beg food from picnickers. Half Dome towers above, leading you on and on to yet more beautiful vistas.

Most Significant in the History of Preservation:

Lower Yellowstone Falls, Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming


When painted and sketched by Bolton boy Thomas Moran in 1871 from the vantage point now known as Artists Point there was no such thing as 'a national park'. His landscapes of the falls in the Grand Canyon wilderness of the Yellowstone were presented to Congress on the floor of the House of Representatives and so captured the mood of the nation that the first national park was established to preserve and protect this landscape forever.

Best Swimming after Drinking Mai Tais and Gorging on Chocolate Covered Macadamia Nuts:

Kilaniapia Falls, Hilo, Big Island, Hawaii

Get a room at the Inn, swim in your own private falls. Watch wild pigs grunt and frolic around the nearby nut trees.

Simply the Best:

Mooney Falls, Havasupai Indian Reservation, The Grand Canyon, Arizona

Your reward for a ten mile hike down the remote south west rim of the Grand Canyon is a series of ever more jaw dropping waterfalls you might think could only exist in a Pixar Animation about The Garden of Eden. The warmest, bluest water bubbles up from heated underground streams and flows through the canyon like silk. The hike down to Mooney Falls involves climbing through caves and hanging off bits of improvised ladder.