Mesa Falls: Simply Ah-MESA-ING!

Bucket List: Mesa Falls, Caribou-Targhee National Forest
When:  Sunday, June 13, 2021
Cost:   $5/vehicle daily pass

While staying in Victor Idaho, we met up with Lana’s high school classmate, Craig, an outdoor enthusiast who lived in the area. We asked him about activities we should do outside of Grand Teton National Park.   We told him that, among other things, we liked wildlife and waterfalls.   He immediately suggested that we take a scenic drive to Mesa Falls. Craig and his wife told us about an encounter that they had with a bear laying in the sun eating huckleberries.  The round trip would take 3-4 hours, but would be well worth it, they promised.  

Mesa Falls Scenic Byway

Because one of our goals was to spot wildlife, our plan was to leave late afternoon so that we would be in the Caribou-Targhee National Forest in the hours before dusk when wildlife should be more abundant.      

THE SCENIC DRIVE TO MESA FALLS

Our drive to Mesa Falls included two scenic byways:

• The Teton Scenic Byway.

  We drove Idaho 33 north to Driggs, then caught Idaho 32 after Tetonia, and headed north and east to Idaho 47 at Ashton.

• The Mesa Falls Scenic Byway.

  From Ashton, we took Idaho 47 northeast to the old Bear Gulch Ski Area site and then northwest along Forest Service Route 294 to the northern end at U.S. 20.

The latter byway contains the following stops worth mentioning:

• Teton Overlook. 

  Although mountains are roughly 40 miles away, the view is spectacular.  I would recommend binoculars or a camera with a good zoom lens though.

• Bear Gulch.

  A former ski area, the area now contains two trails used largely for snowmobiles.   

• City of Island Park.

  This place boasts the world’s longest Main Street at 33 miles.  

But as Craig promised, the highlight of the drive was no doubt the falls.   

LOWER MESA FALLS

Mesa Falls Nature Trail — about 1.25 miles one-way

Lower Mesa Falls can be seen from a pull-out and overlook right along the highway.   The falls is roughly 1500+ feet away.   The waterfall is large and impressive, but it’s a little hard to see from that the overlook.   There’s a 1.25 (one-way) nature trail from Upper Mesa Falls that lets visitors get about 200 feet away from Lower Mesa Falls.  Unfortunately, we did not have time for a hike that day.   If we were doing this excursion over, I’d make time for the hike so that we could see Lower Mesa Falls much closer.

UPPER MESA FALLS

Upper Mesa Falls is just a short drive from Lower Mesa Falls. It is simply AMAZING!   After meandering about a quarter mile or so down a boardwalk with several flights of stairs, we were met with this incredibly tall (144 feet high!) and wide (200 feet!) waterfall.   At the bottom of the boardwalk, the sound of the falls is overwhelming, and there is occasional spray in some places because of the proximity of the waterfall. The power and beauty of the water is on full display.   

Mesa Falls sits within the Yellowstone I Caldera

The Mesa Falls Visitor Center is located at the the old Big Falls Inn near Upper Mesa Falls before the boardwalk begins.  Built in the early 1900s, the inn served as a hotel, café, dance hall, and is now listed on the National Register of Historic Places.  It closes at 5:30 p.m. so we were not able to make it there.  (Again, if we were doing this excursion over, I would make time so that we could tour the visitor center AND do the nature trail hike).  Luckily, there are some signs outside that discuss the falls formation, the surrounding caldera, and history of Mesa Falls.

Now, the big question: Did we we see wildlife? Despite our best laid plans and Craig’s promises, the answer is “not really.” We saw some cool birds, and a couple of woodchucks that we first thought might be beavers. But alas! No bears. No moose. No deer. No elk. No coyotes. I was a little bummed about that, but the waterfalls made up for it.

Woodchuck near Mesa Falls

The other thing that made up for the lack of wildlife was the sunset on the drive back to Victor. We were treated to spectacular views of the Tetons in a pinkish haze for 30-45 minutes.

Thank you, Craig, for this amazing suggestion. The scenic drive and Mesa Falls was definitely worth the time.