Most big waterfalls in the United States sit where hard rock meets a lot of water: the Cascades and the Columbia River Gorge, the Sierra Nevada, the Appalachian escarpment from Georgia to New York, and the volcanic islands of Hawaii. The table below follows that map. Pick a state to see its falls side by side, sorted by drop, with the walk each one needs.
A waterfall page here starts with the numbers a visit depends on: the drop, the round-trip distance on foot, the fee, who runs the land and whether the trail is open. Those figures come from the managing agency and are rewritten into one format, so a 30-foot roadside falls and a 600-foot falls with a steep climb can be compared in seconds. We add what an agency page usually leaves out: how the falls rank in its state, which other falls lie within 60 miles, and the monthly weather at the nearest NOAA station.
The table is selective on purpose. A fall earns a page only when an official source gives both its height and a way to reach it, and when the place is public land with a clear manager. Falls on private land, on tribal land, or with no agency figures are not listed. The data is a guide for trip planning and is not official: verify with the agency before you go.
Waterfalls by state
| State | Falls | Tallest listed | Drop |
|---|---|---|---|
| Washington | 25 | Fairy Falls (Mount Rainier) | 600 ft |
| California | 14 | Yosemite Falls | 2,425 ft |
| Wyoming | 12 | Lower Falls of the Yellowstone River | 308 ft |
| Oregon | 10 | Multnomah Falls | 620 ft |
| North Carolina | 10 | Whitewater Falls | 411 ft |
| Tennessee | 10 | Fall Creek Falls | 256 ft |
| Michigan | 8 | Sable Falls | 75 ft |
| West Virginia | 8 | Cathedral Falls | 60 ft |
| Virginia | 8 | Overall Run Falls | 93 ft |
| Ohio | 7 | Whispering Cave Falls | 105 ft |
| Colorado | 7 | Fish Creek Falls | 280 ft |
| Alabama | 6 | Graces High Falls | 133 ft |
| Kentucky | 6 | Yahoo Falls | 113 ft |
| New York | 6 | Kaaterskill Falls | 260 ft |
| Hawaii | 4 | ʻAkaka Falls | 442 ft |
| Minnesota | 4 | High Falls of the Baptism River | 63 ft |
| New Hampshire | 3 | Arethusa Falls | 200 ft |
| Wisconsin | 3 | Big Manitou Falls | 165 ft |
| Georgia | 2 | Amicalola Falls | 729 ft |
| Arkansas | 2 | Hemmed-In Hollow Falls | 210 ft |
| Idaho | 1 | Shoshone Falls | 212 ft |
| Montana | 1 | Bird Woman Falls | 492 ft |
| Massachusetts | 1 | Wahconah Falls | 40 ft |
| New Jersey | 1 | Great Falls of the Passaic | 77 ft |
| Maine | 1 | Step Falls | 250 ft |
| Pennsylvania | 1 | Ricketts Glen Falls | 94 ft |
| Utah | 1 | Lower Calf Creek Falls | 126 ft |
Winter and tools: frozen waterfalls, Niagara Falls frozen, Yosemite firefall, waterfall flow now, CFS converter, hiking time calculator.
Questions
Where do the numbers come from?
Drop and trail length come from the agency that manages each place: the National Park Service, the Forest Service, state park systems or city and county parks. We do not use user-submitted trail logs. Each page links to its sources and says when it was checked.
Is this a list of every waterfall?
No. It is a growing table of 162 falls in 27 states where the managing agency publishes a height and a way to get there. Thousands of smaller falls have no official figures and are left out.
When is the best flow?
It depends on snowmelt and rain, and agencies rarely give a single date. Pages state the season when the agency does, and the waterfall flow page shows live USGS river readings for well-known falls next to each river's monthly average.
Sources: the managing agencies linked on each fall page (National Park Service, USDA Forest Service, state park systems, city and county parks); map boundaries: U.S. Census Bureau. Facts checked November 2026.
Unofficial data guide for trip planning: verify with the official source. Conditions, access and rules change.