Tokopah Falls

Tokopah Falls is a 1,200-foot cascade at the end of an out-and-back walk through Tokopah Valley above Lodgepole. The route is 3.4 miles round trip, with about 600 feet of elevation change, and takes roughly two hours. Go for the river and granite canyon as much as the waterfall: the valley stays rewarding even when the flow is low.

The trail begins just beyond Marble Fork Bridge in Lodgepole Campground. The path follows the river through forest and meadows beneath granite canyon walls, then gets rockier toward the falls and finishes among boulders. It is an unpaved trail with bridges and staircases, and NPS does not consider it wheelchair accessible. There are no giant sequoias on this route, though it is one of the easier ways to get a glimpse of the park’s high country.

Tokopah Valley was carved by a glacier, much like Yosemite Valley. That broad glacial shape sets up the walk: a river at the bottom, granite walls rising on either side, and open views as the trees thin near the falls.

The waterfall flows mainly with spring and early-summer snowmelt. By late summer or fall it can be a much thinner cascade, so choose this hike for the canyon as well as the water if you’re going later in the season. Marmots, deer and bears live along the trail. In high water, the Marble Fork can have powerful undercurrents, and the snowmelt is cold enough to cause hypothermia; stay well back from the river’s edge.

At the boulder basin near the end of the walk, frame some of the granite blocks beneath the falls to give the cascade scale. The view feels bigger when you include both the water and the rock it pours across, rather than filling the frame with white water alone.