Otter Lake Falls

Otter Lake Falls is the smallest of the three waterfalls which can be found between Delta Lake and the three larger lakes which feed into it in the heart of the Alpine Lakes Wilderness. The falls consist of three distinct tiers, dropping a total of 159 feet in a series of cascading steps. The first two tiers drop back to back in very scenic veils of 40 and 18 feet over broad shelves of granite bedrock. At the base of these two tiers the creek splits into two, with a small portion cascading down a boulder-choked gully which bypasses the lower tier of the falls, while the major portion of the stream accelerates down a chute and cascades down a ramping cascade for another 101 feet. The basin which feeds into Otter Lake and its outlet stream covers an area of about 3 square miles and includes Otter, Azurite, Iron Cap, Bonnie and Tank Lakes. There is no permanent snow or ice feeding into this basin, though Iron Cap Lake was formerly the site of a small glacier, so the volume of the Otter Lake outlet stream will rely heavily on winter snow melt. The multiple lakes in the basin will help to regulate the flow of the stream, but by mid to late summer expect to find the volume of the creek greatly reduced from its peak flow rates seen from late May to early July.