Waterfalls in Kansas

Kansas's waterfalls, small drops on the Flint Hills' limestone

Kansas has almost no relief to speak of, but where a stream crosses resistant limestone or an old dam spillway in the eastern third of the state, it still drops a few feet at a time. The state counts 24 named waterfalls, none of them topping 40 feet, most on the Flint Hills' chert-capped limestone or the sandstone hills of the southeast corner.

Where the waterfalls are

The Flint Hills run from Marshall County in the north to Cowley County in the south, where streams crossing its chert-banded limestone cut narrow, boxlike channels; Marshall County holds Alcove Spring Falls and Idlewild Falls, and Cowley County has Cowley Lake Falls. In the southeast corner, Chautauqua County, with 4 listings, and Elk County, with 3, sit on sandstone laid down some 300 million years ago, the same rock exposed at Elk Falls. Bourbon County and Johnson County each add 2 listings, both dam spillways; Johnson County's pair sit at suburban lakes in Merriam and Olathe, closer to Kansas City than any other listing. Jefferson County's single listing, Valley Falls, once powered a mill and gave the town, first named Grasshopper Falls, its name, but the falls themselves are dammed over today. Butler, Chase, Cherokee, Doniphan, Geary, Greenwood, Morris, Riley and Wabaunsee counties each hold one.

Waterfalls worth the trip

• Alcove Spring Falls, 5 feet, is a quarter-mile walk from parking on East River Road; the Donner-Reed Party camped and named the spring here in 1846, and one of its members, Sarah Keyes, died and was buried nearby.
• Elk Falls, 5 feet, drops over a sandstone ledge at the town that took its name from the falls; a mill once used its power, and an 1893 truss bridge downstream now gives a pedestrian view.
• Chase Falls drops 35 feet on Prather Creek in Chase County.
• Cowley Lake Falls, 20 feet, is a dam spillway at Arkansas City.
• Rock Creek Lake Falls drops 10 feet near Fort Scott.
• Pillsbury Crossing Falls, 5 feet, crosses Deep Creek near Manhattan.

When to go

Alcove Spring Falls flows mainly in spring and is usually dry by summer. Most of the rest are dam spillways whose flow tracks lake levels and releases rather than a fixed season, so a wet spring or a rainy week is generally a better bet than a dry summer stretch.

Fees and access

Most of these are dam spillways on county, city or wildlife-area lakes rather than fee-charging state parks; Alcove Spring Falls sits on land held by a private preservation association rather than a park agency. A Kansas fishing license is required to fish at any of them, separate from the vehicle permit the state charges only at its own state parks; none of these falls sits in one.

Safety

At Elk Falls, high water can form a retaining hydraulic at the ledge, a stretch rated Class III by paddling guides.