RIFLE • The pictures of the three-pronged waterfall parade across social media. They all fail to capture Rifle Falls.
A picture cannot capture the full scope of the environment.
The geology 300 million years in the making, including the mossy cliff over which the cascade runs, and the surrounding caves, dark and mysterious. The sweeping view from atop that cliff, from iron platform protruding off the rock.
The lush greenery of boxelder, maple and cottonwood stands, clearing for open, grassy meadows of dragonflies. Through here the creek trickles — in stark contrast to the main attraction.
The triple waterfall roars. It casts admirers in a cool, refreshing cloud of mist that sparkles under the western Colorado sun.
Pictures can’t elicit all the senses.
“The smells, too,” says Rifle Falls State Park manager Brian Palcer. “The smell of the water, the trees. ... It’s just very peaceful.”
It’s unlike anything in Colorado.
Reads an interpretive sign nearby: “Rifle Falls State Park might be as close to the tropics as you will find in Colorado.”
People are increasingly finding the park. That’s perhaps even more so this summer, as access is limited to another famed waterfall east of here on Interstate 70. Trail construction has cut back reservations to Hanging Lake.
“We’re definitely busy, and some of that might be from Hanging Lake,” Palcer says. “But I think it’s really just the trend we’ve seen over the years.”
When he first arrived at Rifle Falls 14 years ago, the park estimated visitation around 110,000. That’s closer to 144,000 now.
Blame it on all those social media pictures or publications like ours or simply these post-pandemic times of more travel and outdoor-seeking. Whatever the cause, “word is getting out,” Palcer says. “It’s not a hidden gem anymore.”
Maybe Rifle Falls never was.
Park history traces tourism to the 1880s, when James Watson established a ranch here and charged admission to the falls and caves. The next decade, Allen Zerbe bought the property to build a resort. A hotel would open upstream from the falls in the early 1900s, only to burn down in 1923.
While that attraction ended, a utility continued. Just as Rifle Falls was manipulated for commercial interests, so it was for power generation. One of the three falls shoots from a pipe — recalling the hydroelectric plant the town of Rifle built below.
The plant operated for about 50 years, ahead of a fish hatchery opening in 1954 on the grounds of the old hotel. The hatchery laid claim to “the world’s largest trout farm” for a time. Trout continue to be raised here, bound for stocking in fisheries near and far.
“When we’re full, we’ll tell (drivers) there’s some other areas you can go visit, the hatchery being one of them,” Palcer says.
The small parking lot at Colorado’s smallest state park — 48 acres carved out of hatchery property in 1966 — indeed fills fast.
“When I first got here 14 years ago, we would hit capacity every weekend,” Palcer says. “Now we hit it during weekdays of the summer months as well.”
Among other recommended sites to see are two other state parks Palcer manages: the reservoirs of Rifle Gap and Harvey Gap. Up the road from Rifle Falls is Rifle Mountain Park, a climbers’ paradise of soaring, canyon walls.
There’s camping at Rifle Mountain Park, with plenty more sites at Rifle Gap. That reservoir is larger and allows for jetskis and wakeboarding, while Harvey Gap is a quieter retreat for fishing and paddling.
“They all have different feels,” Palcer says.
But nothing feels quite like Rifle Falls. Which is why Palcer hates turning people away.
The tight confines limit any parking expansion. That’s good, Palcer says. “You don’t want to put too many people in there and ruin everybody’s day.”
He wonders if everybody’s days would be better if a timed-entry reservation system was created. Palcer says he’s been watching how the system has played out at Eldorado Canyon State Park. “That might be something we look into,” he says.
Because, yes, he hates turning people away. Everyone should experience Rifle Falls, he says — “more memories for more people.”
Memories that a picture can only attempt to capture.
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