Exploring Rifle Falls: Stunning triple waterfall is as close to the tropics you can get in Colorado
RIFLE, Colo. — The pictures of the three-pronged waterfall parade across social media. They all fail to capture Rifle Falls.
A picture cannot capture the full scope of the environment.
The geology 300 million years in the making, including the mossy cliff over which the cascade runs, and the surrounding caves, dark and mysterious. The sweeping view from atop that cliff, from iron platform protruding off the rock.
The lush greenery of boxelder, maple and cottonwood stands, clearing for open, grassy meadows of dragonflies. Through here the creek trickles — in stark contrast to the main attraction.
The triple waterfall roars. It casts admirers in a cool, refreshing cloud of mist that sparkles under the western Colorado sun.
Pictures can’t elicit all the senses.
“The smells, too,” says Rifle Falls State Park manager Brian Palcer. “The smell of the water, the trees. ... It’s just very peaceful.”
It’s unlike anything in Colorado.
Reads an interpretive sign nearby: “Rifle Falls State Park might be as close to the tropics as you will find in Colorado.”
People are increasingly finding the park. That’s perhaps even more so this summer, as access is limited to another famed waterfall east of here on Interstate 70. Trail construction has cut back reservations to Hanging Lake.
“We’re definitely busy, and some of that might be from Hanging Lake,” Palcer says. “But I think it’s really just the trend we’ve seen over the years.”
When he first arrived at Rifle Falls 14 years ago, the park estimated visitation around 110,000. That’s closer to 144,000 now.
Blame it on all those social media pictures or publications like ours or simply these post-pandemic times of more travel and outdoor-seeking. Whatever the cause, “word is getting out,”...