Avalanche Gorge is a cascade on Avalanche Creek in Glacier National Park, Montana, where the creek squeezes through a narrow rock slot in Flathead County. It is an example of the carving power of water, visible from the Trail of the Cedars boardwalk.
The falls
Avalanche Creek drops in a run of whitewater through a small canyon it has cut into the rock. Blue water rushes through a gorge of moss-covered red rock, framed by old-growth cedar and hemlock. The gorge sits at about 3,449 feet. No surveyed height has been published for it.
Getting there
The Trail of the Cedars starts at the Avalanche Picnic Area on Going-to-the-Sun Road, next to the Avalanche Campground. It is a wheelchair-accessible boardwalk loop of 0.9 mile with 83 feet of gain, and a bridge partway around the loop looks down into the gorge. The first half mile of the Avalanche Lake Trail follows the same boardwalk before turning steeper and rockier; the round trip to the lake is about five miles.
Park shuttles do not stop at Avalanche in 2026. Summer admission to Glacier is $35 per private vehicle for seven days ($25 from November through April). Non-US residents aged 16 and older pay an extra $100 per person unless they hold an eligible pass. The park requires no vehicle reservations in 2026.
When to go
The Park Service calls the Avalanche Creek area one of the most popular and crowded spots in the park. Spring and summer runoff fills the gorge with deep, fast whitewater.
On site
Dogs are not allowed on the Avalanche Lake Trail. The area has picnic tables, accessible restrooms and drinking water. In July 2024 a hiker left the trail above the gorge, stood on a large rock and fell into Avalanche Creek; the current carried him into the gorge, and rangers could not recover his body for four weeks because of the depth and whitewater. Stay on the boardwalk and the trail.
Nearby
An unnamed waterfall on a tributary of McDonald Creek is about 1.6 miles away. Hidden Lake Falls is about 2.3 miles away, and Monument Falls about 2.7 miles. Avalanche Basin Falls is about 3 miles away.
Distances are straight-line.