Sight · Yellowstone National Park
A 40-foot waterfall beside the one-way canyon drive.
Overview
Map
Plan your stop
The highest, rockiest slopes around here are a summer buffet for grizzly bears.
Yellowstone Tour Guide
Parkwolf is a GPS audio tour guide for Yellowstone 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 Yellowstone audio tourRecorded for this place
Firehole Falls and Canyon Swimming Area“Firehole Falls is coming up, a forty-foot waterfall you can enjoy from a roadside viewing area without a hike. I'd stop for a few minutes to watch the river drop between the canyon walls.”
Plays as you drive up to Firehole Falls in the Parkwolf Yellowstone Tour Guide.
More stories near here in the app
“First time driving through a national park. We used the Yellowstone tour on grand loop Road and it’s just like having a tour guide in your car with you.”
Guide
Firehole Falls is a 40-foot waterfall on the Firehole River, viewed from a designated area along Firehole Canyon Drive. It is a short roadside stop rather than a hike, and an easy way to add a waterfall to the canyon drive. For a photo, keep some of the enclosing rock in frame so the rushing water stays connected to its setting.
The one-way road follows the Firehole upstream through a canyon with lava flows described as up to 800 feet thick. The river is part of Yellowstone’s geyser country: it flows north from the Upper Geyser Basin and joins the Gibbon at Madison Junction to form the Madison.
Enter Firehole Canyon Drive just south of Madison Junction and continue southbound; the route runs to just above Cascades of the Firehole. The park identifies a viewing area but does not detail the walking surface or step-free access, so check ahead if accessibility matters. Facilities at the nearby Firehole Swim Area are separate; the park does not list services at the falls viewing area.
Wildlife
713 sightingsGrizzly BearMost seen around 6 AMSighting map
743 sightingsWolfMost seen around 6 AMSighting map
5,273 sightingsBisonMost seen around 7 AMSighting map
3,258 sightingsElkMost seen around 7 PMSighting map
397 sightingsMooseMost seen around 7 PMSighting map
1,494 sightingsBlack BearMost seen around 7 PMSighting mapSighting maps show where each species has been reported across Yellowstone. Wildlife moves, so no sighting is guaranteed.
Keep exploring
ChallengingPurple Mountain Trail6.6 mi · 4 hr · 1.2 mi awayEleven switchbacks climb to views over the Gibbon and Madison valleys.
EasyHarlequin Lake Trail1 mi · 45 min · 1.3 mi awayA quick walk through young pines to a quiet lake.
EasyTerrace Spring Trail0.2 mi · 15 min · 1.6 mi awayA short boardwalk loop to Yellowstone’s small thermal area.
EasyFountain Freight Road Trail4 mi · 2.5 hr · 4.6 mi awayA level old-road walk past hot springs, river, meadows, and a lake.
EasySentinel Meadows & Queen’s Laundry Trail3.8 mi · 3 hr · 4.9 mi awayA meadow walk to Queen’s Laundry and its 1881 bathhouse
Visitor center · 0.8 mi awayMadison Information Station and Trailside MuseumA useful stop inside an original 1930 trailside museum.
Beach · 0.9 mi awayFirehole Canyon Swimming AreaA river dip that follows the snowmelt’s schedule.
Campground · 1 mi awayMadison CampgroundA handy base near the river confluence and geyser basins.
Sight · 1.6 mi awayTerrace SpringA short boardwalk ends at a spring bubbling with carbon dioxide.
Picnic area · 2.2 mi awayTuff Cliff Picnic AreaA roadside picnic beneath a cliff of welded volcanic ash.
Picnic area · 3 mi awayFirehole River Picnic AreaPause by the Firehole where geothermal water warms the river.
Picnic area · 4 mi awayNez Perce Picnic AreaA shaded riverside picnic stop near Old Faithful.
Picnic area · 4.6 mi awayGibbon Falls Picnic AreaA riverside lunch stop below Gibbon Falls.Parkwolf’s Yellowstone ranking
The audio tour guide for the drive, plus offline maps, trails, and wildlife heatmaps for when the signal drops.
