United States 
In numbers.
35m
Height
20m³/s
Average flow
estimate
Apr–Jun
Best months
6.9MW
Water power
estimate
The water at Upper Mesa Falls, month by month
It roars from April to May.
The fullest months: from April to May, with the snowmelt. The thinnest: from January to February and from July to October. Below −4 °C on average (from December to February): the falls can partly freeze.
- 8.1 m³/sJan
- 11 m³/sFeb
- 44 m³/sMar
- 61 m³/sApr
- 49 m³/sMay
- 30 m³/sJun
- 12 m³/sJul
- 5.6 m³/sAug
- 7.4 m³/sSep
- 9.3 m³/sOct
- 16 m³/sNov
- 19 m³/sDec
From about 5.6 m³/s in the lowest month to 61 m³/s in the highest. Best months to go, with plenty of water and pleasant days: from April to June.
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.
Waterfall on the Henry Fork in Idaho, United States
Upper Mesa Falls is a waterfall in United States. The water falls 35 m over a front 61 m wide.
Getting there.
- Ashtonnearest town · 16 km in a straight line
- Parking 210 m awaynearest car park in OpenStreetMap, straight line
- Yellowstone Airport (WYS)nearest airport with scheduled flights · 58 km in a straight lineCar hire at IDA airport (Idaho Falls)Discover Cars · Affiliate link↗
- From April to Junebest 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.
6.9 MW
About 20 m³/s falling 35 m: the power of the water as it drops.
- as much as 2.3 large wind turbines
- enough to power about 1,700 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 69 m in 3.6 km. Here the river runs about 127 m below the lower rim of its valley.
What is around.
- 5viewpointsLower Mesa Falls and 4 more
- —waymarked walking routes
- 2car parks
- —swimming spots
- —picnic sites
- 4toilets
- 7information boards and visitor centres
- —bus stops within 1 km
- 1other named waterfalls within 4 kmLower Mesa Falls
- —caves
- 1campsitesGrandview Campground
- —hotels, B&Bs and huts within 6 km
- —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).
Towns nearby
- Ashton16 km in a straight line
Weather
The weather, month by month.
| Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Afternoon °C | -3 | -1 | 3 | 9 | 16 | 22 | 28 | 27 | 21 | 12 | 3 | -3 |
| Night °C | -13 | -12 | -7 | -2 | 3 | 8 | 13 | 12 | 6 | 0 | -6 | -13 |
| Rain & snow (mm) | 78 | 65 | 69 | 71 | 69 | 58 | 28 | 34 | 46 | 60 | 70 | 85 |
| Wet days | 16 | 14 | 15 | 15 | 15 | 12 | 8 | 8 | 8 | 10 | 13 | 17 |
| Sun h/day | 3.6 | 5.3 | 6.1 | 7.6 | 8.6 | 10.5 | 12.5 | 10.9 | 8.8 | 6.1 | 3.9 | 2.9 |
| Snow on the ground (cm) | 55 | 64 | 43 | 18 | 7 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 10 | 17 | 30 |
Long-term averages 1991–2020 (NASA POWER) for a cell about 55 km wide, with temperatures carried to the height of the falls (1,707 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 | 110% | 81% | 105% | 79% | 92% | 189% | 90% | 40% | 48% | 52% | 92% | 40% |
| 2021 | 62% | 70% | 45% | 36% | 102% | 11% | 94% | 206% | 49% | 122% | 49% | 94% |
| 2022 | 35% | 11% | 31% | 72% | 102% | 105% | 32% | 138% | 86% | 65% | 104% | 83% |
| 2023 | 68% | 73% | 127% | 54% | 93% | 145% | 64% | 237% | 122% | 114% | 41% | 51% |
| 2024 | 70% | 126% | 128% | 57% | 75% | 49% | 60% | 121% | 97% | 33% | 56% | 76% |
| 2025 | 40% | 127% | 78% | 49% | 83% | 35% | 62% | 141% | 56% | 134% | 24% | 143% |
130% wetter than usual 70% drier than usual
Compare with the waterfalls nearby.
Upper Mesa Falls
United States
- 35 mHeight
- 20 m³/sAverage flow
- Apr–JunBest months
About these numbers
| Names, height, width, river | Wikidata (Q37966) · 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.
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