The Best Waterfalls in Utah — and Which Ones Still Run When the Snow Runs Out

The best waterfalls in Utah for a dry summer are the ones that don’t depend on snowmelt: Bridal Veil Falls in Provo Canyon, Lower Calf Creek Falls in Escalante, and the Tropic Ditch waterfall at Bryce all run strong in July and August because springs, creeks, and an old irrigation ditch feed them, not the fast-vanishing snowpack. That distinction matters more in a lean snow year than almost anything else about a waterfall. The rule for chasing falls in a dry summer is simple: ask what feeds it before you drive two hours to find a damp cliff.

Here are five of the state’s best, sorted by the thing that actually keeps them flowing.

Bridal Veil Falls — Provo Canyon

Bridal Veil Falls is Utah’s most famous waterfall and the easiest to reach: it drops down the south wall of Provo Canyon right beside US-189, a few steps from a paved trail and a parking lot. The often-quoted height is 607 feet, though that figure stitches together the main double cataract with a long run of talus cascades below it. The World Waterfall Database puts the falls themselves closer to 440–480 feet, with the rest made up of the tumbling water beneath. Either way, it’s a wall of white water you can see from the car.

What makes it the summer pick is the source. The falls are spring- and creek-fed rather than purely snow-driven, so they keep running through the hot months when higher trails go quiet. A paved, wheelchair-accessible path along the Provo River Parkway runs to the base, which makes this the rare big waterfall you can share with grandparents and toddlers on the same afternoon. Get there early on a July weekend; the lot fills fast, and the canyon bakes by midday.

Lower Calf Creek Falls — Grand Staircase-Escalante

Lower Calf Creek Falls is the desert one — a 126-foot ribbon pouring into a green pool ringed by cottonwoods, hidden inside a sandstone canyon between Escalante and Boulder. The trail runs about six miles round trip along Calf Creek, mostly flat but sandy enough to make you work for it, with petroglyphs and a pictograph panel on the canyon walls along the way. The trailhead sits in the Calf Creek Recreation Area on Scenic Byway 12, roughly 15 miles east of Escalante.

This is spring-fed canyon water, so it runs year-round and looks its best in the heat of summer when the pool at the base becomes the whole point. The catch is timing: there’s almost no shade for the first stretch, the sand radiates heat, and afternoon temperatures in July can punish you. Start at dawn, carry far more water than feels reasonable, and the swim at the end will be the best part of your week.

Tropic Ditch Falls (Mossy Cave Trail) — Bryce Canyon

Here’s the one that breaks the rules: the waterfall on the Mossy Cave Trail at Bryce Canyon is essentially man-made, which is exactly why it runs hardest in summer. The 20-foot falls sit on the Tropic Ditch, a channel Mormon settlers dug by hand in the 1890s to pull water over the rim and irrigate the town of Tropic below. When natural snowmelt streams across southern Utah dry to a trickle in July, this one is still moving water because farmers are still moving water.

The hike is the gentlest on this list — under a mile round trip from the Highway 12 trailhead between Bryce Canyon City and Tropic, with two little bridges, a mossy grotto, and hoodoos overhead. It’s the easiest way to stand beside a waterfall inside a national park without paying the main entrance fee or fighting the rim-road crowds.

Stewart Falls — Mount Timpanogos

Stewart Falls is the alpine showpiece: a two-tiered cascade dropping about 200 feet down the east face of Mount Timpanogos, reached by a 3.5-mile round-trip trail from the Aspen Grove trailhead off the Alpine Loop. The path winds through aspen and fir with the jagged Timp ridgeline above you, and the falls come into view from across a small basin before the trail drops to their base.

Be honest with yourself about timing. Stewart Falls is snowmelt-fed, so in a lean snow year it can thin out earlier than usual — late June or early July usually gives the fullest flow, with a slimmer ribbon by August. The Alpine Loop also closes in winter, so road access tracks the same window.

Donut Falls — Big Cottonwood Canyon

Donut Falls earns its name from the hole the creek has bored through a chunk of rock, so the water appears to pour out of a stone doughnut before dropping into the grotto below. It’s one of the most family-friendly hikes in the Salt Lake area — roughly 1.5 miles round trip from the trailhead in Big Cottonwood Canyon, with gentle grade and a parking fee. On a summer Saturday it’s a parade of strollers and dogs, and for good reason.

Two cautions. First, this is snowmelt-fed Wasatch water, so like Stewart Falls it runs best early in the season and fades as the dry summer wears on. Second, the final scramble to the falls is over slick rock, and people have died falling here — admire it from the safe vantage and don’t climb the wet stone to reach the namesake hole. A waterfall is never worth a slip.