Bridal Veil Falls is a 365-foot plunge waterfall on Bridal Veil Creek at the head of the box canyon above Telluride, San Miguel County, Colorado. It is widely cited as the tallest free-falling waterfall in the state, and a historic hydroelectric plant perched on the cliff at its brink, still producing power for the town, sets it apart from any other waterfall in the state.
The falls
Glaciers cut the main valley hundreds of feet deeper than Bridal Veil Creek's side valley, leaving the creek to leap off the rim in a single 365-foot drop confirmed by lidar. Earlier surveys listed 431 feet, a figure that may have measured the hydro system rather than the falls. The high, snowy basin above keeps water flowing most of the year.
Getting there
Drive east from Telluride on Colorado Avenue past the Pandora Mill, where the pavement ends and the road becomes Forest Road 648. The main parking area is at the switchback about 2 miles from town; it is small and fills by mid-morning on summer weekends. From there, the falls are about three-quarters of a mile away, in view the whole time.
Hikers walk the rocky road, shared with jeeps and mountain bikes, to the base of the falls: about 2 miles round trip with some 860 feet of gain. Continuing up the switchbacks to the overlook beside the power plant makes a 4-mile round trip with about 1,380 feet of climbing, topping out around 10,400 feet. Above the plant the road becomes the Black Bear Pass jeep road, which is one-way downhill in this section and usually opens in mid to late July.
When to go
The falls are fullest from May through August with snowmelt. The road to the falls is closed to vehicles in winter, and walking up in winter is discouraged because of rockfall and avalanche danger. In winter the falls freeze into a 400-foot ice climb rated WI5+.
On site
The Smuggler-Union Hydroelectric Power Plant and the land around it are private property owned by Idarado Mining; stay on the road and view the plant from the overlook. Watch for vehicles and fast-descending bikes on the switchbacks.
History and name
The power plant was built in 1907 to supply the Smuggler-Union Mine, shut down in 1953, and restored in 1991; listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1979, it still runs an original Westinghouse generator and supplies about a quarter of Telluride's electricity. The frozen falls were first climbed by Jeff Lowe and Mike Weis in 1974. After years of closure, ice climbing reopened in the winter of 2008 to 2009 under a license from Idarado.
Nearby
Ingram Falls is about 0.5 mile away, Marshall Creek Falls about 1.1 miles and Bear Creek Falls about 2.5 miles.
Distances are straight-line.