vidae falls

Vidae Falls is a beautiful 100 foot (30m) high cascade located on East Rim Drive approximately 3.0 miles (4.8k) east of the park headquarters. As the springs that feed the falls are driven primarily by snow melt, the best time to view the falls is typically from mid July, shortly after the East Rim Drive usually opens, through August, but depends upon the snow pack from the prior winter. During this time of high flow, the mist from the falls supports a lush patch of wildflowers. While the falls can be viewed from the pullout and the paved walk in front, the best view, especially of the wildflowers, is by taking a short but rocky and somewhat overgrown path on the right hand side of the pullout which takes one behind the brush between the pullout and the falls; the views from this vantage point are particularly photogenic.

Vidae Falls is located to the side of a road, not far from Carter Lake lodge. As one can see from my two photographs, thousands of brightly colored flowers bloom right next to this waterfall, as well as in the sloped meadow near the waterfall. At this time of the year (August), a few patches of snow still remained, here and there on the ground in the shaded areas on the upper slopes of Crater Lake. Hence, it was clearly the case that the slopes had recently experienced plenty of running water, for the benefit of the flowers. Although it is not likely that any particular traveler visits Crater Lake solely for the purpose of viewing Vidae Falls, it is highly likely that a good fraction of tourists in Oregon have waterfalls as their number one priority for their Oregon agenda.