
In numbers.
302m
Height
0.47m³/s
Average flow
estimate
Jun–Jul
Best months
1.4MW
Water power
estimate
The water at Takakkaw Falls, month by month
It roars from May to June.
The fullest months: from May to June, with the snowmelt. The thinnest: from September to March. Below −4 °C on average (from November to April): the falls can partly freeze.
- 0.1 m³/sJan
- 0.1 m³/sFeb
- 0.3 m³/sMar
- 0.6 m³/sApr
- 1.4 m³/sMay
- 1.6 m³/sJun
- 1.0 m³/sJul
- 0.5 m³/sAug
- 0.3 m³/sSep
- 0.4 m³/sOct
- 0.3 m³/sNov
- 0.1 m³/sDec
From about 0.09 m³/s in the lowest month to 1.6 m³/s in the highest. Best months to go, with plenty of water and pleasant days: from June to July.
Estimate: the timing comes from rain, snowmelt and evaporation (NASA POWER, 1991–2020); the amounts from the river model of HydroATLAS (WaterGAP, 1971–2000). Dams upstream can change the real flow.
Waterfalls in British Columbia, Canada
Takakkaw Falls is a waterfall in Canada. The water falls 302 m. It lies within Yoho National Park.
Getting there.
- Parking 760 m awaynearest car park in OpenStreetMap, straight line
- Calgary International Airport (YYC)nearest airport with scheduled flights · 176 km in a straight lineCar hire at YYC airport (Calgary)Discover Cars · Affiliate link↗
- From June to Julybest months to go (estimate)
Plan your visit
Stay, explore and get there
Some links above are affiliate links: if you book through them we may earn a commission, at no extra cost to you. It never changes what the data on this page says.
How big is it?
How big it really is.
Height of the drop from Wikidata. Buildings and the person are drawn at the same scale.
1.4 MW
About 0.47 m³/s falling 302 m: the power of the water as it drops.
- enough to power about 347 homes, if it were all turned into electricity
Power of falling water = density × gravity × flow × height. Average flow and height as shown above; an estimate.
Seen from the sky.
8 × 8 km of cloud-free satellite image, with what OpenStreetMap knows around the falls.
N
2 km
Sentinel-2 cloudless 2016 (EOX, CC BY 4.0), 8 × 8 km, north up. Points © OpenStreetMap contributors.
The line follows the river as mapped in OpenStreetMap; heights from the 30 m Copernicus model, which smooths narrow drops — the published height of the falls is the one above.
Around the falls the river drops 549 m in 1.8 km.
What is around.
- 1viewpoints
- 2waymarked walking routesYoho Valley Trail, Takakkaw Lake Route
- 5car parks
- —swimming spots
- 2picnic sites
- 3toilets
- 1information boards and visitor centres
- —bus stops within 1 km
- 3other named waterfalls within 4 kmAngel's Staircase Falls, Point Lace Falls, Laughing Falls
- —caves
- 4campsitesLaughing Falls Campground, Twin Falls Campground, Takakkaw Falls Campground and 1 more
- 2hotels, B&Bs and huts within 6 kmWhiskey Jack Hostel, Twin Falls Chalet
- —restaurants and cafés within 3 km
Counted in OpenStreetMap, the map anyone can edit, up to 2 km around the falls (unless noted). A low number may just mean nobody has mapped it yet. © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL).
Weather
The weather, month by month.
| Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Afternoon °C | -8 | -7 | -4 | 0 | 6 | 13 | 17 | 16 | 11 | 3 | -5 | -9 |
| Night °C | -16 | -17 | -14 | -9 | -2 | 3 | 6 | 5 | 1 | -6 | -13 | -17 |
| Rain & snow (mm) | 69 | 56 | 89 | 70 | 82 | 117 | 86 | 70 | 80 | 86 | 90 | 66 |
| Wet days | 18 | 14 | 20 | 18 | 18 | 22 | 18 | 14 | 15 | 17 | 19 | 17 |
| Sun h/day | 1.9 | 4.2 | 4.5 | 6.4 | 7.4 | 6.4 | 8.5 | 8.0 | 5.4 | 3.4 | 1.3 | 1.7 |
| Snow on the ground (cm) | 77 | 91 | 103 | 94 | 39 | 6 | 1 | 2 | 9 | 17 | 34 | 59 |
Long-term averages 1991–2020 (NASA POWER) for a cell about 55 km wide, with temperatures carried to the height of the falls (1,851 m) at −6.5 °C per 1,000 m. Not a forecast.
Photos
Through visitors' eyes.
Recent years
Wet years and dry years
Rain of each month as a share of the 1991–2020 average. A wet season above 100 % usually means a fuller waterfall.
| Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2020 | 121% | 114% | 82% | 66% | 106% | 99% | 102% | 71% | 52% | 124% | 94% | 110% |
| 2021 | 75% | 110% | 63% | 57% | 116% | 87% | 42% | 147% | 83% | 68% | 162% | 147% |
| 2022 | 98% | 85% | 69% | 107% | 109% | 117% | 66% | 120% | 57% | 48% | 69% | 89% |
| 2023 | 40% | 121% | 43% | 101% | 96% | 108% | 105% | 111% | 71% | 63% | 51% | 109% |
| 2024 | 84% | 142% | 71% | 110% | 138% | 92% | 57% | 179% | 76% | 114% | 89% | 94% |
| 2025 | 41% | 61% | 140% | 79% | 92% | 105% | 199% | 91% | 45% | 61% | 102% | 254% |
130% wetter than usual 70% drier than usual
Compare with the waterfalls nearby.
About these numbers
| Names, height, width, river | Wikidata (Q572771) · CC0 |
|---|---|
| River flow and catchment | HydroATLAS / RiverATLAS v1.0 (Linke et al. 2019) · CC BY 4.0 |
| Climate | NASA POWER, 1991–2020 |
| Relief, river profile, 3D model | Copernicus DEM GLO-30 · © DLR e.V., © Airbus Defence and Space GmbH, Copernicus/ESA |
| Paths, viewpoints, parking | © OpenStreetMap contributors · ODbL |
| Images | EOX Sentinel-2 cloudless 2016 · CC BY 4.0; Wikimedia Commons |
Every figure is an average, an estimate or a count from a public dataset. Licences and methods: data sources.
The family
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Same idea, other landscapes: field atlases built on open data, month by month, in seven languages.






