Box Canyon Falls

Box Canyon Falls thunders 285 feet down a narrow slot of billion-year-old Precambrian quartzite, squeezing through a gap barely 20 feet wide at its tightest point. The confined space amplifies the roar to a deafening pitch, and the perpetual mist sustains a hanging garden of mosses and ferns on the canyon walls. On sunny days, light filters into the chasm and illuminates the spray in shifting columns of gold and silver.

A short 500-foot paved walkway leads from the park entrance to a steel bridge spanning the canyon directly above the falls, offering a vertigo-inducing view straight down into the churning pool. Stairs descend to a lower viewing platform at the base. A separate High Bridge Trail climbs 800 feet to a suspension bridge with aerial views of the canyon and the town of Ouray spread below.

Visit in late May or June for maximum water volume when Canyon Creek runs at full bore from snowmelt. The park is open year-round, and winter brings spectacular ice formations that attract ice climbers from around the world. The $5 entrance fee is well worth every penny.