Michael Falls

Michael Falls is located near Emerald Lake in Yoho National Park. Hike the Emerald Lake loop clockwise for 1.7km to the Yoho Pass Trail and bear left. The trail crosses a good dozen channels of the Emerald River then begins climbing steeply. At the top of the climb the trail swings right across a talus field where the falls are visible, a total of 4.4km from the parking lot at Emerald Lake. The falls can also be accessed via a 6.5km hike from the Yoho Valley Road.Fed by a modest glacier nestled south of The President and to the west of Michael Peak, an unnamed branch of the Emerald River hurtles over 1400 feet down the side of Michael Peak in one of the more impressive waterfalls in the Canadian Rockies Parks. However despite its size, because the falls are situated in a deep recess such that it cannot be seen from the popular Emerald Lake area, the falls are very obscurely known and receive comparatively little visitation.
As the waters of the unnamed glacier on the west of Michael Peak conglomerate and form a noteworthy stream, it runs over long slabby ledges and talus deposited by the retreating glacier. Upon reaching the edge of the mountain it hurtles over a sheer plunge of between 200 and 300 feet before cascading through more talus. At this point the water funnels to the left and skips and horsetails over 500 feet down a long narrow crevice, from which it gathers and explodes out a forceful plunging firehose, dropping another 300 feet in impressive fashion. Before the creek resumes its long descent down the talus slope to join Emerald Lake below, it flumes down a narrow crack containing about 200 feet of additional cascades, though due to foreshortening and the narrow nature of the gorge, much of this part of the falls cannot be seen easily.