Box Canyon Falls

Southwest Colorado


This is a popular short walk from town, or you can drive to the signposted parking lot off Box Canyon Rd. The waterfall is 285ft high and issues thousands of gallons of water each minute over a spectacular drop. The immediate area around the falls is rich in birdlife – the protected black swift nests in the rock face. The falls are within Box Canyon Park, which has a modest entry fee.


Lonely Planet's must-see attractions

Nearby Southwest Colorado attractions

1. Ouray County Museum

0.63 MILES

Little Ouray, ‘the Switzerland of America,’ is very picturesque and littered with old houses and buildings. The visitors center and museum issue a free…

2. Telluride Historical Museum

8.99 MILES

This Smithsonian-affiliated museum features the geologic history of the region as well as background on local mining history and native cultures. While…

3. Ridgway Railroad Museum

10.03 MILES

Ridgway was the birthplace of the Rio Grande Southern Railroad, a narrow-gauge rail line that connected to Durango with the ‘Galloping Goose,’ a kind of…

4. Mayflower Gold Mill

13.29 MILES

This mill was once a major employer in Silverton. Stop in to see how miners extracted gold and minerals from the ore. The Aerial Tram House is a highlight…

5. Mining Heritage Center

13.97 MILES

This specialist museum is dedicated to Silverton’s mining history. Old mining equipment is displayed and there’s a re-created machine shop and blacksmith…

6. Silverton Museum

13.98 MILES

Installed in the original 1902 San Juan County Jail, the Silverton Museum has an interesting collection of local artifacts and ephemera.

7. Slumgullion Slide

22.7 MILES

In AD 1270 a catastrophic earth flow moved almost 5 miles down the mountainside and dammed the Gunnison River to form Lake San Cristobal, Colorado’s…