Rainbow Falls
Montana · 47-foot drop · Last verified 2026-05-15
Rainbow Falls is at 4,910 cfs of flow today, on the upper end of typical conditions.
Right now
Streamflow
4,910 cfs
Missouri River near Great · 1h ago
Overnight
56°F
Clear
Friday
95°F
Sunny
Today's daylight
Sunrise 5:37 AM · Sunset 9:22 PM · 15h 44m
Snapshot built 6m ago. Sources: USGS · NWS TFX.
Rainbow Falls is a waterfall in Cascade County, Montana. It drops roughly 47 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.
Rainbow Falls sits in Cascade County, Montana. It drops along Rainbow Falls is a waterfall on the Missouri River. The base sits at roughly 3,195 feet of elevation. Drive time is about 3 minutes from Malmstrom AFB. This is one of the more frequently visited falls in the state by our popularity model. Source records come from OpenStreetMap and USGS GNIS.
Rainbow Falls is a waterfall on the Missouri River in Great Falls, Montana, just upstream from Crooked Falls and downstream from Colter Falls and Rainbow Dam. It is 47 feet (14m) high and 1,320 feet (402.3m) wide. The waterfall is part of the five Great Falls of the Missouri. The river spills over a sheer ledge of sandstone in the Kootenai Formation, forming the falls. The falls used to flow with a great deal of force year-round. In 1914 the river shortly upstream was dammed for hydroelectric power by the Rainbow Dam, which forms a run-of-the-river reservoir. As a result, the falls can almost totally dry up in the summer with only a few narrow strips of water trickling down its face. A railroad bridge crosses the river directly above the falls.
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 06090300 · 7.5 mi away
Missouri River near Great Falls MT
View live discharge data →
30-day streamflow
Near 30-day average↻ Same date last year: 4,460 cfs · 110% of last year — similar
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rainbow Falls (this page) | — | 47 ft | — | — | — |
| Crooked Falls | 0 mi | 19 ft | — | — | — |
| Colter Falls (historical) | 1 mi | — | — | — | — |
| Black Eagle Falls | 3 mi | 26 ft | — | — | — |
| Big Falls | 4 mi | 89 ft | — | — | — |
| Castner Falls | 21 mi | — | — | — | — |
Side-by-side comparisons
Rainbow Falls compared head-to-head with other documented falls — height, access, fees, dogs, swimmability in one row each.
Related waterfalls
Similar height (~47 ft)
- Erie Falls47 ft
- Forever Falls47 ft
- Highway 123 Falls47 ft
- Ladder Falls47 ft
- Lizard Log Falls47 ft
Questions visitors ask about Rainbow 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 Rainbow Falls?
Rainbow Falls is 47 feet (14.3 m) tall. Height is sourced from OSM.
How far is Rainbow Falls from a major city?
Rainbow Falls is 2 miles from Malmstrom AFB (about 3 minutes' drive).
More waterfalls in Montana
Where it is
47.5344, -111.2038
Sources and live status
Where we got the data, and where to check current conditions before you drive.
Wikipedia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rainbow_Falls_(Missouri_River)
Wikidata (Q7284624)
https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q7284624
GeoNames (5673011)
https://www.geonames.org/5673011/
Last verified by Fallspots: 2026-05-15
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