Rainbow Falls
Washington · height not recorded · Last verified 2026-05-15
Flow at Rainbow Falls is 251 cfs today, around its seasonal average.
Expect dry conditions today — don't drive out for this one. Flow is at 228 cfs (bottom 3% of the last 30 days, vs. 416.9 cfs average). The 7-day NOAA forecast shows no significant rain.
Right now
Streamflow
251 cfs
STEHEKIN RIVER AT STEHEKIN, · 34m ago
Overnight
56°F
Mostly Cloudy
Thursday
66°F
Mostly Sunny then Haze
Today's daylight
Sunrise 6:32 AM · Sunset 7:27 PM · 12h 55m
Snapshot built 8m ago. Sources: USGS · NWS OTX.
Rainbow Falls is a waterfall in Chelan County, Washington. Height has not been officially recorded. 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 Chelan County, Washington. It drops along Rainbow Creek. The base sits at roughly 1,433 feet of elevation. Drive time is about 36 minutes from Winthrop. OpenStreetMap shows a trail within 80 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.
Rainbow Falls is a waterfall on Rainbow Creek in the U.S. state of Washington. The waterfall is located inside the Lake Chelan National Recreation Area in the North Cascades National Park, and is near Stehekin. The falls drops 392 feet (119.5 m) in two tiers. The uppermost tier falls 312 feet (95.1 m) to a basin.
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 12451000 · 1 mi away
STEHEKIN RIVER AT STEHEKIN, WA
View live discharge data →
30-day streamflow
Below 30-day average↻ Same date last year: 407 cfs · 56% of last year — significantly drier
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) | — | — | — | — | — |
| Bridal Veil Falls | 6 mi | — | — | Y | Free |
| Monkey Bear Falls | 10 mi | — | — | Y | Free |
| 10 Mile Falls | 10 mi | — | — | Y | Free |
| Copper Creek Falls | 11 mi | — | — | Y | Free |
| Green View Falls | 12 mi | — | — | N | — |
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 far is Rainbow Falls from a major city?
Rainbow Falls is 25 miles from Winthrop (about 36 minutes' drive).
More waterfalls in Washington
Where it is
48.3436, -120.6991
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_(Chelan_County)
Wikidata (Q30601205)
https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q30601205
Last verified by Fallspots: 2026-05-15
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