A waterfall hike that you can walk across

A waterfall hike that you can walk across… say WHAT!? Where? Near Colorado Springs!

This little town is one of my favorite mountain towns. It’s so picturesque. It even has an ice cream parlor and a restaurant. This town is mainly home to vacationers and summer homes, but it’s so pretty.

Oh yea, this waterfall hike that you can walk across. Let me tell you about it and how I came across it and most importantly, where it’s at!

Where is the waterfall at?

This waterfall hike is in Green Mountain Falls. This little mountain town is hidden in the Pike’s Peak Forest. As you are driving to Woodland park on 24, you pass right by it. Off of 24 there is a light that you would turn at to go up to Pike’s Peak. If you veer to the right at the fork in the road, instead of going straight to Pike’s Peak, you are headed to Green Mountain Falls.

SIGH! I love this town. It’s so beautiful, and small, and just like out of a Hallmark movie. I’ve mentioned before in another post about easy waterfall hikes, that there is designated parking in this town. You have to park in the town center and walk to the trailhead. It’s not a long walk, but the incline is tough. Once you get to the trailhead, it’s amazing and worth your thighs burning.

How I found out about it

A sweet little old man told us about it, kind of.

The kids and I were hiking this trail for the first time in the Spring of last year. As we were struggling to get up this dumb hill/mountain, a little old man said good morning to us. We said good morning back. He asked if we were on our way to see the waterfall. I said yes. He told us how to get there, but the way he told us, was not the way my map said to go. I said thank you and the kids and I walked the way he told us.

Holy smokes the second hill was just as tough as the first. BUT…Low and behold this guy was right. AND it was so much faster than the way the map said. Needless to say the kids were elated about the “shortcut”. And drank all the water in our water bottle by now!

Now that we knew about the “shortcut” to the waterfall, we explored further and further on this trail with every time we went here.

I have an old map of the hiking trails for Green Mountain Falls. It’s not a normal trail map that you’d find at the State Park. Someone made the map the best they could. And gave directions the best they could. Then made it into a PDF and put it on the website. NOW if you go to print out the map, it doesn’t show you the trails, just the trailheads. I wish I would have saved it, because it was incredibly useful!

So how did we find out that you can cross the waterfall…. I was looking at the map more closely and realized that there was a dotted line that went across the waterfall. I’ve seen it before but never really thought that you could actually walk across the waterfall!!!! Well you can. And if I would have paid MORE attention to the falls, there is actually a trail marker on the other side of the falls. SMH!

David and I were taking the kids back to the waterfall and we were looking at our busted up map, when a couple stopped and asked if we had any questions about the map. She said that they’d hiked every inch of this place. I asked if you could cross the waterfall, she said yes. She also said to be careful and have fun!

WHAT! So that’s what we did.

Hiking boots and all, no water shoes needed. As we approached the waterfall, another family was walking across it as well. We waited for them to pass and then walked across, slipped, laughed, took pictures and had a great time. Then we saw that the trail continued, so we took that trail. It ended at one of the residential roads.

We had such a great time. As we were walking back along the streets, we saw where the falls actually ended. And there was a pool and beachy type area. SO naturally we stopped to play in that! We brought water shoes with us to walk across the waterfall. We didn’t use them there, but we used them at the END of the falls!

When is the best time to go?

Summer! We have been to this little town very often! But in order to cross the waterfall and get to see it flowing, June, July and August are great!

The rocks aren’t icy, the waterfall has fully melted and all the snow is gone. That is the best time to cross the waterfall and experience its full glory!

Tips for a successful waterfall hike

Download the map to your phone or print it out. BUT…the map will only tell you how to get to the trail head.

The name of the trail that you will start at is the Thomas trail. That trailhead is at the end of boulder street. Once at the trailhead, walk a couple of feet then you’ll come to a fork in the trail. Go right. There is a yellow trail marker, follow that. Once you reach a “T” in the trail (You’ll hike around a huge boulder) you’ll see signs for Thomas trail (Yellow) and Kirkpatrick trail (Green). Take the Kirkpatrick trail. Which will be left. You’ll take this trail until you get to the waterfall. NOW… cross the waterfall.

Once you get across you’ll see another green trail marker. Follow that. Keep left if there seems to be another trail or a fork in the road. You’ll hike a ways down the trail. There will be another fork in the trail, go left.

The trail will end at a road. This is Mountain Rd. This street will turn left into Park. On the left you’ll see a clearing in the trees, that is where the falls ends and the little pool area is at. Be careful as we’ve encountered deer here. They aren’t afraid of people.

If you look at the trail map from the town’s website, you will be taking Thomas to Kirkpatrick to Crystal Falls. Then walking along Mountain to Park and that’ll take you back down to the lake.

What to pack

• Bring water shoes
• A towel to dry your feet off, or a kid
• Snacks
• Water, lots of water
• Trekking poles or find walking sticks

Wrap-up about the waterfall hike that you can walk across

I know that the directions sound a little intimidating especially since there isn’t a clear name for the trail to look up on Alltrails.

I hope you have a great time on the waterfall hike!!!

Do you know of another waterfall that you can walk across? If so please share that with us. We’d love to visit!!