The trail everyone walks, and almost no one times correctly. Here is when to go.
The Bear Creek trailhead is at the south end of Pine Street, four blocks from the gondola plaza. From there it is 1.7 miles to the base of the falls, gaining roughly 1,000 feet in elevation through a canyon that stays cool even in July. Most people who visit Telluride walk it once, in summer, and consider it done.
The correct time to walk it is the third week of September. The aspens have not fully turned yet — they are in the process of turning, which is more interesting than the full gold, because you can see both colors in the same tree. The canyon holds the color long after the higher elevations have gone bare. The water is running clear and fast from the early-season snowmelt. There are almost no other hikers.
A practical note on timing: start no later than 9am. The canyon runs east-west and the light falls directly on the falls for only about forty minutes, around 10:15. If you are there to photograph it, be above the first switchback before 10. If you are there to sit next to it, it does not matter.
The falls themselves are modest — thirty feet, running over a shelf of metamorphic rock. The walk is the point, not the destination. Come back in January when it freezes, if you can.
Written by Nell Hollaway. Published on April 18, 2026.
