Vidae Falls

Vidae Falls is a tiered, spring-fed cascade beside East Rim Drive, where the road crosses Vidae Creek east of Munson Valley. It is a short stop rather than a hike: you can see the water from the road and move a few steps closer for a better look. This is not a Crater Lake overlook.

The water drops over several rock ledges through a wooded slope. From the road the cascade can look compressed; a few steps closer from the roadside pullout give a less foreshortened view. Stay with the pullout and do not climb the bank for a photograph. The falls can seem modest when the creek is running low, especially later in the season.

Vidae Creek begins at springs near the south shoulder of Applegate Peak, about a sixth of a mile above the falls. Snowpack sustains a fairly steady flow through the year, though it naturally eases later in the season. Spring melt or rain can make the water more prominent.

A 1935 park nature note described the cascade cutting through a notch in a gray lava cliff above a wet meadow. It suggested that glacial carving and a more resistant lava ledge may help explain the falls and the bench above them. The same account recorded dog-tooth lilies and forget-me-nots in the damp swale; those flowers are seasonal, not a sure part of every visit.