Sylvia Falls in Mount Rainier National Park

Sight · Mount Rainier National Park

Sylvia Falls

A 43-foot fan of water folded into a narrow canyon.

Photo: National Park Service
Type
Sight
Nearest trail
1.6 mi
Audio stories
6 nearby

Hear the audio tour

A Night Beside the Steam Vents

Overview

About Sylvia Falls

Why stop

  • A broad, fan-shaped veil spills over volcanic rock.

Heads up

  • Reaching the view takes a hike, and trees partly hide the falls.

Map

Where it is

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SightSylvia Falls46.76481, -121.67491
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Plan your stop

Before you go

7 active Mount Rainier alerts

  • ClosureWildfire closures in the northern parkGrand Park 2 and Wonderland Complex fire closures affect trails, backcountry camps, and Sunrise access; stay out of closed areas.Official details
  • ClosureSR 165 bridge closed: no public access to Carbon River or Mowich LakeThe SR 165 Carbon River/Fairfax Bridge is closed to vehicles, bicycles, and pedestrians; there is no public access or alternate route to Carbon River or Mowich Lake.Official details
See all 7 alerts
A park ranger sits on a dash-mounted phone, talking, as Parkwolf’s Tour Guide plays “Army Cutworm Moths: A Grizzly Bear Buffet” on Grand Loop Road below Dunraven Pass in Yellowstone
Parkwolf Tour GuideThe highest, rockiest slopes around here are a summer buffet for grizzly bears.

Mount Rainier Tour Guide

Your drive to Sylvia Falls, narrated.

Parkwolf is a GPS audio tour guide for Mount Rainier 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.

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Recorded for this area

A Night Beside the Steam Vents
0:00 / 0:33
“On Rainier's first documented successful ascent, volcanic heat helped the climbers survive the night. In eighteen seventy, Hazard Stevens and P. B. Van Trump reached the summit after a long climb.”

Plays on the road 0.2 mi from Sylvia Falls in the Parkwolf Mount Rainier Tour Guide.

More stories near here in the app

  • The Songbird Under the Water
  • Martha Falls: The View Across the Canyon
  • A Marmot’s Short Summer
  • Bench and Snow Lakes: Two Hours on Foot
  • 77 audio storiesacross Mount Rainier’s roads, triggered by GPS as you drive
  • Wildlife heatmapsfor Mountain Goat, Black Bear, Wolverine, and 13 more
  • Works offlinemaps, 99 trails, 87 places, and audio download before you lose signal
  • CarPlay readysimple controls built for the drive
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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!!!!”
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Guide

More about Sylvia Falls

A waterfall along the Wonderland TrailSylvia Falls is a 43-foot, single-drop waterfall on Stevens Creek in Stevens Canyon.

Sylvia Falls is a 43-foot, single-drop waterfall on Stevens Creek in Stevens Canyon. You see it across a narrow gorge from the Wonderland Trail; this is a hike-in view, not a roadside stop. Reach it with a 1.4-mile hike from where the Wonderland Trail crosses upper Stevens Canyon Road, or a 3.3-mile hike from Box Canyon trailhead. The longer Stevens Creek route reaches both Sylvia and Martha Falls over about 8 miles round trip, with 1,675 feet of climbing.

If you start at Stevens Creek, the trailhead lot has plumbed restrooms, a drinking fountain, a few picnic tables and room for about 30 cars. Those facilities are at the lot, not at the falls.

Look for an opening in the treesThe canyon bend, trees and shadows partly hide the waterfall.

The canyon bend, trees and shadows partly hide the waterfall. Look for a gap in the branches from the trail to frame the falls across the creek; Even from a good opening, expect an obstructed, shaded view rather than a wide-open cascade.

How the fan formsStevens Creek bends into a narrow trough in volcanic bedrock and spills over a ledge.

Stevens Creek bends into a narrow trough in volcanic bedrock and spills over a ledge. The broad lip spreads the 43-foot drop into a veil about 20 feet wide on average, reaching roughly 30 feet at its widest. The right side drops over an undercut cliff.

Wildlife

Wildlife in Mount Rainier

All Mount Rainier wildlife maps

Sighting maps show where each species has been reported across Mount Rainier. Wildlife moves, so no sighting is guaranteed.

Keep exploring

Near Sylvia Falls

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