Argenta Falls is a 50-foot waterfall on the Lake Fork of the Gunnison River in Hinsdale County, Colorado, dropping in two steps just below Lake San Cristobal, between the lake and Lake City. It sits on private land, but it has a long record: it was photographed for the Hayden survey in 1875, proposed for a small hydro project in the 1980s and later found to shelter a black swift colony.
The falls
Lidar surveys measure the total drop at about 50 feet across two distinct steps, with the taller drop around 40 feet. Earlier surveys listed 80 feet, while an 1875 photograph catalogue recorded roughly 90 feet. A natural rock ledge directly above the brink has served as a diversion point for the river. Beside the torrent, a cavern in the rock wall holds the swift nests.
Getting there
The falls sit on private property reached through a small residential area along the river, and visitors must respect posted no-trespassing signs. A 1985 federal hydropower filing confirms the site is entirely private land, with no general public access documented. In July 2022, an interpretive guided walk led from the Lake Fork Earth & Sky Center behind the Woodlake RV park to an overlook of the falls and the river, spanning about 1 mile round trip.
When to go
Flow records for the falls are not published. In the Southern Rockies, snowmelt drives the strongest flows in spring.
On site
Black swift surveyors with landowner permission walked to the top of the falls, about 50 yards from the nearest house, and counted six occupied nests in the cavern beside the water, logging it as Colorado black swift colony No. 94.
History and name
The 1875 catalogue of Hayden survey photographs placed the falls half a mile below the lake, noting that miners working almost beneath them had built a bridge across the fall. In 1985 John C. Simmons of Lake City applied to the federal government for the Argenta hydro project, with a flume from the rock diversion above the falls and a powerhouse below them; an earlier exemption had been issued in 1983.
Nearby
Crooke Falls is about 2 miles away on the same river, Treasure Falls about 4.3 miles away on Henson Creek, and Witmore Falls about 10.3 miles away, also on Henson Creek. Ouray is about 20.7 miles to the west.
Distances are straight-line.