Wapta Falls

Find the Wapta Falls Road 31.5km west of the city of Golden and 25km west of Field along the Trans-Canada Highway within Yoho National Park. The road is only signed for eastbound travel. Follow the gravel road to its end in a little under 2km. The trail leads 2.4km to the top of the falls via an easy, flat trail, then drops steeply to its base. A much more obscure trail leads to views of the falls from the opposite side of the river via a series of ATV trails (which are commercially utilized, so watch and listen for traffic) accessed from the Beaverfoot FSR.Wapta Falls is one of the largest waterfalls in British Columbia by volume and is among the most significant in the Canadian Rockies as a result. The falls are usually said to stand about 30m (100 feet) in height, but our survey efforts have shown it to be just 58 feet tall and about 330 feet wide, which makes the falls approximately the same dimensions as Dawson Falls in Wells Gray Provincial Park - only with more water. Though this diminishes any claims Wapta Falls may have had to the title of "largest" waterfall in British Columbia, it is still among the most significant. The volume of water flowing over the falls can vary greatly due to the high percentage of water contributed from melting glaciers. During the peak of the summer melt season the river can swell to over 13,000 cubic feet per second, but from the late fall to late spring while temperatures remain low and snow covers the ground, the river shrinks to just a fraction of that volume.Wapta is a Stony Indian word meaning "river".