Bear Creek Falls is one of the easiest hikes you can find in Glacier National Park (Canada). The trail head is right next to Highway One, so it is perfect for a short stop-off as you are driving through this incredible National Park. The Waterfall descends out of a hanging valley flowing down from the spectacular Rogers Pass. This is an energetic, super splashy waterfall. If you visit in the summertime, be prepared to get completely soaked!

Bear Creek Falls trail map

Bear Creek Falls – the basics

Waterfall details: Horsetail (or tiered horsetails if you count the sections above.)
Height: 20m drop for lower section (55m total drop)
Cost: You need to have a discovery pass to enter Canadian National Parks.
Once you have that, it is free.
How much time do you need: At least 30 minutes
Mini hike distance: 1.2km
Elevation gain: 54m
Dogs: Dogs will love it. Just keep them on a leash.
Facilities: Fancy pit toilets at the trailhead
Extra notes: This one is short, but steep. You’ll want grippy shoes so you don’t slide on the way down. If you want to go up close to the falls you will end up all soggy from the spray.

Bear Creek Falls – Getting started

It’s very easy to reach this waterfall! Heading North on Highway One, watch out for the green signpost for Bear Creek Falls on the left 11km after Roger’s Pass. There is a short road that leads to a wide car park with loos (above) and a sign that marks the trailhead (below.)

This is such a short walk, that we didn’t carry the 10 essentials. However as the sign mentioned the area is home to both grizzly and black bears; We did bring our bear spray.

Head downhill

Follow the trail (steeply) downhill for about 400m until you reach some steps down to Connaught Creek. This Creek used to be called Bear Creek. They just didn’t bother to adjust the name of the waterfall when they changed the name of the creek. Once you make it down, follow the trail right, along the creek.

Bear Creek Falls from Connaught Creek

This is the first view of Bear Creek Falls from Connaught Creek. Now you’ve hiked down one set of stairs, you need to hike up a different set of stairs to get a little closer.

Get read to be soggy

As soon as we reached the falls, I went up as close as I could…but there was sooo much spray that it was hard to keep my eyes open. It’s basically impossible to take close-ish photos of the waterfall, as your camera lens will be covered in water vapor. I was drenched.

I found that if you climb down to the river, you can find sheltered spots that shield you from the gusts of wind produced by the waterfall. It’s hard to see from photos, but there was so much power in this waterfall!

We visited Bear Creek Falls on a hot summers day when the air was filled with smoke from forest fires, so it was sooo nice to start our day by getting soaked by this fabulous waterfall.

Save some energy for the walk back

The only downside to visiting Bear Creek Falls is that you need to hike uphill the whole way back. Still, the effort is totally worth it.

This is just a teeny post for a short but sweet stop off in Glacier National Park. Bear Creek Falls is really impressive for a waterfall you can visit with so little effort. I totally recommend stopping here, rather than driving straight through!

Other Waterfalls near Glacier National Park

We visited quite a few waterfalls on this (and previous) trip(s). I will add more to the map below as I create posts for them. In case you are looking for other waterfall adventures. Green waterfalls you can visit with no walk, light blue will require an easy walk and dark blue are waterfalls that need longer/intermediate hikes to visit.

Please click on the pins below if you’d like to save the information for later.