Chipeta Falls is a 180-foot tiered horsetail waterfall on Corral Creek in Gunnison County, Colorado, where the creek drops almost straight into Morrow Point Reservoir in Curecanti National Recreation Area. It is a boat-access waterfall: the main drop is seen from a canoe or kayak on the reservoir.
The falls
The World Waterfall Database, working from lidar data, counts four distinct steps totaling about 180 feet, of which only the final drop of about 115 feet is readily visible from the water. Older measurements put it at 100 feet. A SummitPost ice-climbing page shows the frozen falls at about 160 feet.
Getting there
Morrow Point Reservoir, twelve miles long, is open only to hand-carried boats; motorboats are not allowed. The National Park Service's route in is the Pine Creek Trail: about 232 steps down into the canyon, then roughly a mile along the shore to the launch. Every Morrow Point boater needs a free backcountry permit, available at the Pine Creek trailhead, and there is no launch fee. The ranger-led Morrow Point boat tours ran until 2019 and have not resumed since the pandemic, per a 2024 Crested Butte News report. Details on the Curecanti boating page.
When to go
June through September is the season for descending the creek's canyon on Ropewiki, and the falls are also a winter ice climb.
On site
Swift water lasts for the first half-mile below Pine Creek, and releases from Blue Mesa Dam can change water levels suddenly and make the paddle back hard; plan the return accordingly. The creek above the reservoir is a technical canyoneering route with four rappels, the longest listed at 130 feet. Boat-in backcountry campsites are available on the reservoir.
History and name
The falls are named for Chipeta, wife of the Ute leader Ouray. An old Rijksmuseum photograph on this page shows them above a railroad line in the Black Canyon.
Nearby
Fall Creek Falls is about 12.3 miles away, West Soap Creek Falls about 16.6 miles and West Beaver Creek Falls about 20 miles.
Distances are straight-line.