Firehole Falls is a 32-foot waterfall on the Firehole River in Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming, where the river breaks over a ledge inside the volcanic walls of Firehole Canyon. It sits about half a mile upstream of Madison Junction, and a one-way scenic road brings drivers to a viewing area right beside it.
The falls
The Firehole pours over the ledge in a single broad drop between the canyon walls. The waterfall drops 32 feet over the ledge, though older surveys and park records list 40 feet. Typical flow averages about 465 cubic feet per second during two months of high water and about 280 cfs for the rest of the year. On the way in, the road passes lava flows that measure 800 feet thick.
Getting there
Firehole Canyon Drive leaves the Madison–Old Faithful road just south of Madison Junction and runs one way upstream along the river to just above Cascades of the Firehole, passing the falls viewing area. Under park regulations for 2026, buses, trailers and recreational vehicles are not allowed on the drive. Yellowstone admission is $35 per private vehicle for seven days, plus $100 per person for non-US residents aged 16 and older unless they hold an Annual or America the Beautiful Pass.
When to go
River flow rises with spring snowmelt.
On site
The falls are seen from the roadside viewing area; there is no documented trail to the base. Dogs must stay on a leash no longer than 6 feet and within 100 feet of roads and parking areas, which covers the pullout but not the riverbank beyond it. The separate Firehole Swim Area on the same drive was closed as of June 2026, scheduled to open no earlier than late summer or early fall; high water can keep it shut all season, and jumping from the cliffs is forbidden.
History and name
Lieutenant Gustavus Doane of the 1870 Washburn expedition described rapids here falling perhaps 40 feet in half a mile where the channel narrows to 150 feet. No record explains the name, though park records used Firehole Falls consistently by the 1880s. The falls blocked fish from moving upstream, and the river above them was fishless until brook trout were stocked in 1889, brown trout in 1890 and rainbow trout in the 1920s. Stocking turned the upper Firehole into a trout fishery, and the falls still stop spawning trout from running up from the Madison.
Nearby
Cascades of the Firehole is about 1.1 miles upstream, at the end of the same drive. Gibbon Falls is about 4.9 miles away and Fairy Falls about 7.3 miles. The town of West Yellowstone, Montana, is about 12 miles west.
Distances are straight-line.