In this guide, I will show you how to easily find waterfall hikes on AllTrails. If you are not familiar, AllTrails is a very popular app for finding hiking, biking, and other types of trails in your area. By using the filters on the search, we can easily find hikes with waterfalls on the AllTrails app or desktop website.
An Important Note on AllTrails Waterfalls
Keep in mind that AllTrails is driven by the community. This means that sometimes the information is not accurate, or does not meet your expectation of what a waterfall hike should be. This makes “what to look for in a waterfall hike” very important. Let’s dive in next.
Waterfall Hikes and What to Look For
When looking at waterfall hikes its important to research the following to make sure you know what you are getting into.
- Description – Find a description of the waterfall in AllTrails, blog posts, social media posts, or even YouTube videos to know what to expect before you head out. For example, if you look at Lake Poway Loop Trail, this is tagged as a waterfall hike. If you have done this trail before, you know that you can hear the waterfall on this specific trail, but you will not see it. I believe there is a one-off trail you can take to view it, but I have not found it on my couple visits (wasn’t trying too hard to be honest).
- Pictures – Look at recent pictures to see what the waterfall looks like and if it is flowing. A great example is Cedar Creek Falls Trail, where the waterfall only runs seasonally. Wouldn’t it be a bummer to show up and not have any water flowing? It happened to me on this very hike because I did not do my proper research.
- Reviews – Before heading out read recent reviews about the conditions. This goes well with looking at the recent pictures of a trail. Seeing how much water is flowing, will be a good indicator of what you will see when you visit. If the waterfall is just a trickle, maybe save it for a better time.
- Social Media – You can really use social media as your friend. If you are doing research using the above process and not getting all your answers, find some relevant hash tags for the trail, then sort by recent posts if possible. If you find a post, drop a comment on it and ask your questions. You might be surprised at how nice the community is and willing to help answer your questions!
Find Waterfall Hikes on AllTrails Mobile
On the AllTrails mobile app, it is very easy to filter the hikes to only include hikes that have waterfalls associated with them. To start, make sure you have the AllTrails app open. Then at the top of the screen in the search input field (where we see “Find Cities”), click on the filter icon to the right. This will pop up the filtering menu.
Alternatively, there are some quick filters at the top of the screen as well. In the screenshot below we see Distance Away, Activity, Difficulty, and the beginning of another menu option that is not readable. By placing your finger on the menu and swiping to the left, you can see all of the options available.
After swiping all the to the left, you can see the “More filters” option is available. Tap on this to bring up the filter menu. How you get to the filter menu is really just up to your preference, using either option will get you the same results.
Now that the Filters menu option is open, scroll down until you see “Attractions”. Inside this section, you will see “Waterfall” as an option. Select this by tapping the empty box to the right of it. If selected correctly, you should now see a checkmark inside of the box.
I won’t go over all of the other search filters in this post, but if you would like to add any other search criteria, now is the time to do it. Once complete, hit the “See 131 Trails” button at the bottom. The number of trails will vary based on the number of trails that will appear in your specific search results.
Now you are presented with all of the trails that are tagged with “Waterfall” as an attraction. You can zoom in and out of the map to see more or less trails. From here you can also click on each of the trails to find out more details about them.
Find Waterfall Hikes on AllTrails Desktop Website
Finding waterfall hikes on the desktop version of AllTrails is just as easy. Start by making sure you are logged in, then clicking on the “Explore” menu option at the top of the page.
Once you are presented with the map and location of the hikes in the area, click on the “More filters” drop down option.
This will load the additional filters for the search. If required, scroll down until you see the “Attractions” heading. Under this heading, click “Waterfall” and then the “See 31 trails” button. Again, the number of trails will vary based on the number of trails that will appear in your search results.
Now you are presented with the hikes that are tagged with “Waterfall” in your search view.
Wrap Up
As you can see it is easy to find waterfall hikes on AllTrails. You just need to follow a couple extra steps to make sure you find the RIGHT waterfall hikes for you. What are your favorite waterfall hikes?
Is there a specific hike or topic that you would like to see next? Leave a comment down below or reach out via the Contact Form and hopefully, I will be able to get a recap and virtual hike posted soon! Thanks for stopping by, enjoy your adventure.
If you would like to learn more about some of the apps we use during the adventures, please let me know that as well!