Twin Falls

Twin Falls is one of the prime destinations in Yoho Valley in Yoho National Park. The falls are accessed via a 5 mile (one-way) hike from the end of the Yoho Valley road at Takakkaw Falls. The trail junctions are well signed and journey can be done in several loop variations.Twin Falls is one of the signature waterfalls in the Canadian Rockies, found where Twin Falls Creek hurtles just under 400 feet over a lofty limestone cliff in side-by-side plunges before crashing an additional 200 feet over a series of steps and smaller falls within a narrow crevice. Pictures rarely convey the size and scale of the falls as well as witnessing it in person, which has in part led to many misrepresentations of the height of the falls. Sources have at times cited the falls as standing as little as 200 feet (60m) tall to as much as almost 1000 feet in height. Adjacent to the base of the falls is the Twin Falls Chalet, constructed by the Canadian Pacific Railway in 1923 which is still in use today for hikers who wish to overnight near the falls without the necessity of backpacking gear. Around the time the chalet was constructed, when one channel of Twin Falls would get obstructed by debris flowing downstream and "turn off", workers would routinely be dispatched to the lip of the falls to remedy the situation with dynamite. In one such case they actually succeeded in completely blocking the channel and temporarily turning the falls into a single plunge rather than a twin. The problem was, however, subsequently "fixed" and is no longer a concern today.