Great Falls
Connecticut · 49-foot drop · Last verified 2026-05-15
Great Falls is running at 389 cfs — well above seasonal normal. July averages 5.7" of precipitation here — expect high flow.
Right now
Streamflow
389 cfs
HOUSATONIC RIVER AT FALLS · 1h ago
Overnight
52°F
Patchy Fog
Saturday
81°F
Patchy Fog then Sunny
Today's daylight
Sunrise 5:39 AM · Sunset 8:19 PM · 14h 40m
Snapshot built 10m ago. Sources: USGS · NWS ALY.
Great Falls is a waterfall in Northwest Hills County, Connecticut. It drops roughly 49 feet. Access details and conditions have not yet been verified in person by Fallspots — the data on this page comes from OpenStreetMap and USGS GNIS.
Great Falls sits in Northwest Hills County, Connecticut. It drops along Great Falls is a waterfall formed along the Housatonic River. The base sits at roughly 653 feet of elevation. Drive time is about 1 minutes from Falls Village. OpenStreetMap shows a trail within 40 meters of the marked location, though the name isn't recorded. No public parking is recorded within 2 km, so a longer approach is likely. This is one of the more frequently visited falls in the state by our popularity model. Source records come from OpenStreetMap and USGS GNIS.
Great Falls is a waterfall formed along the Housatonic River at Falls Village in the town of Canaan amidst Connecticut's Litchfield Hills. Great Falls is the highest volume waterfall in the state, though a great deal of its potential water volume is diverted immediately upstream during most of the year for hydro-electric power generation.
Is the water flowing right now?
Most waterfall sites don't tell you this. The waterfall itself is almost never gauged, but a USGS streamgage in the same watershed can tell you whether snowmelt has started, peaked, or run dry.
USGS gage 01199000 · 0.4 mi away
HOUSATONIC RIVER AT FALLS VILLAGE, CT
View live discharge data →
30-day streamflow
Near 30-day average↻ Same date last year: 242 cfs · 188% of last year — significantly wetter
When to go (from the climate data, not our opinion)
Monthly averages from Open-Meteo's reanalysis dataset (2020–2024). Highlighted months are when we think the waterfall is at its best — but the numbers are the numbers regardless.
| Month | High °F | Low °F | Precip (in) | Snow days |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jan | 36 | 22 | 3.7 | 13.2 |
| Feb | 39 | 22 | 2.8 | 11 |
| Mar | 48 | 29 | 4.4 | 7.6 |
| Apr | 57 | 38 | 4.3 | 4 |
| May | 69 | 48 | 3.6 | 0.4 |
| Jun | 79 | 58 | 2.8 | 0 |
| Jul | 83 | 65 | 5.7 | 0 |
| Aug | 80 | 63 | 3.6 | 0 |
| Sep | 72 | 56 | 5.9 | 0 |
| Oct | 62 | 46 | 3.6 | 0.2 |
| Nov | 50 | 35 | 2.9 | 4.6 |
| Dec | 41 | 27 | 4.8 | 8.4 |
Source: Open-Meteo Historical Weather API · ERA5 reanalysis 2020–2024.
Compare to nearby falls
If this one isn't the right fit, here's how it stacks up against the closest documented falls. Every column is filterable on the site — not buried in 13,000 reviews.
| Waterfall | Distance | Height | Trail | Dogs | Fee |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Great Falls (this page) | — | 49 ft | — | — | — |
| Dean's Ravine Falls | 3 mi | 49 ft | — | — | Free |
| Cascade | 3 mi | — | — | — | Free |
| Riga Falls | 5 mi | 26 ft | — | — | — |
| Pothole Falls | 6 mi | — | — | — | — |
| Sages Ravine Brook Falls | 7 mi | — | — | — | — |
Side-by-side comparisons
Great Falls compared head-to-head with other documented falls — height, access, fees, dogs, swimmability in one row each.
Related waterfalls
Similar height (~49 ft)
- Bozen KIll Falls49 ft
- Bridal Veil Falls49 ft
- Campbell Falls49 ft
- Dean's Ravine Falls49 ft
- Great Falls49 ft
Questions visitors ask about Great Falls
Answers built from our structured data. If a question isn't here, the fact is unverified — we'd rather omit than guess.
How tall is Great Falls?
Great Falls is 49 feet (15 m) tall. Height is sourced from OSM.
How far is Great Falls from a major city?
Great Falls is 1 miles from Falls Village (about 1 minutes' drive).
More waterfalls in Connecticut
Where it is
41.9626, -73.3721
Sources and live status
Where we got the data, and where to check current conditions before you drive.
Wikipedia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Falls_(Housatonic_River)
Wikidata (Q22058797)
https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q22058797
GeoNames (4835291)
https://www.geonames.org/4835291/
Last verified by Fallspots: 2026-05-15
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