Sight · Mount Aspiring National Park
A short forest path leads to a waterfall beside the Haast Highway.
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The highest, rockiest slopes around here are a summer buffet for grizzly bears.
Mount Aspiring Tour Guide
Parkwolf is a GPS audio tour guide for Mount Aspiring National Park. As you drive, it chimes in with what’s ahead: hidden gems, upcoming stops, history, geology, and wildlife, right through your car’s speakers.
See the Mount Aspiring audio tourRecorded for this place
Depot Creek Falls: An Informal Forest Stop“You're approaching Depot Creek Falls, a small cascade over dark rock ledges in the forest. An unsigned, informal path leads from the gravel pull-off to a clearing, roughly fifty metres away.”
Plays as you drive up to Depot Creek Falls in the Parkwolf Mount Aspiring Tour Guide.
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“Fantastic app with many points of information… It’s great to just turn on while you’re driving and it gives you an audio tour of the national Park. We love it!!!!”
Guide
Depot Creek Falls is a small cascade beside State Highway 6, near the bridge over Depot Creek. A short, informal path climbs through a patch of forest to a clearing facing the falls. It is a modest road stop on the Wanaka–Haast drive, with a waterfall view after only a brief walk.
The entrance is unsigned, and accounts describe a rough gravel area rather than a marked public car park. Stop only if you can pull well clear of traffic safely; skip it if the turnout does not look safe. There are no visitor facilities at the falls.
The path is roughly 30 to 50 metres, rising gently through the trees. With no sign at the entrance, allow a couple of minutes to spot it from the gravel area. The clearing is the only clearly described viewpoint. There is no consistently described or marked route to the base, so do not count on a descent to the water.
After rain, the falls may look stronger, but the informal path can be slippery. Take care on the approach.
Water drops over a dark, sloping rock face in several steps, with moss and ferns around the ledges. It is a smaller, quieter stop than the better-known falls along the pass, so it suits a quick pause more than a dedicated waterfall outing.
For a phone photo, include some of the rock shelves and forest around the water. That shows the falls’ stepped shape better than a tight crop of the white water alone.
Wildlife
60 sightingsKeaMost seen around 5 PMSighting map
112 sightingsRockwrenMost seen around 8 AMSighting map
26 sightingsYellowheadMost seen around 8 AMSighting map
13 sightingsTūīMost seen around 7 AMSighting map
27 sightingsBellbirdMost seen around 7 AMSighting map
35 sightingsRiflemanMost seen around 8 AMSighting mapSighting maps show where each species has been reported across Mount Aspiring. Wildlife moves, so no sighting is guaranteed.
Parkwolf’s Mount Aspiring ranking
The audio tour guide for the drive, plus offline maps, trails, and wildlife heatmaps for when the signal drops.
