The 10 Best Waterfalls in Indiana
Indiana waterfall facts most databases get wrong, corrected up front: the state's tallest waterfall is 108-foot Fremont Falls, and you can't visit it — it's entirely on private land. The tallest you can see is Williamsport Falls at 90 feet (not the 62 many sources carry), and it spends much of the year bone dry. The biggest by volume is Cataract Falls, and the best single gorge is Clifty Falls State Park, where four named falls drop 60 to 83 feet into one limestone canyon above Madison.
Every pick here is rain-fed limestone or sandstone country — which means timing is the skill. December through June is the season; within 48 hours of real rain is the sweet spot; August is for quarry swimming, not waterfalls.
Six falls in our Indiana database didn't make the ranking, each for a stated reason: Fremont (private), Hindostan (a river ledge and a ghost town, not a plunge), Clinton and Elkhorn (roadside glimpses with no confirmed access beyond the pavement), and Groundhog and Vermillion (land ownership nobody can confirm — so no directions from us). Their pages say exactly what each one is.
The tallest drop at Clifty Falls State Park — 83 feet beside an abandoned 1852 railroad tunnel — at the end of the most rugged trail in Indiana. The state's best earned waterfall.
Directions, season & rules for Tunnel Falls →
Indiana's biggest waterfall by volume, with an 1876 covered bridge standing over the brink. Wheelchair-accessible trail, real water even in dry months — the state's most reliable show.
Directions, season & rules for Upper Cataract Falls →
The park's 60-foot namesake, minutes from the gate, above a gorge lined with 425-million-year-old fossil beds. The accessible face of Indiana's best canyon.
Directions, season & rules for Clifty Falls →
Ninety feet of free fall behind a small-town fire station — the tallest waterfall you can actually see in Indiana. Often dry; after a storm, unforgettable.
Directions, season & rules for Williamsport Falls →Seventy-eight feet in the quiet southern half of Clifty's gorge — a ribbon most days, the park's prettiest curtain within 48 hours of rain.
Directions, season & rules for Hoffman Falls →Big Clifty's 60-foot twin, on the easiest full-height falls trail in the park — 1.1 miles, and you'll see both falls in one walk.
Directions, season & rules for Little Clifty Falls →The wide, thunderous second act of Cataract, a mile below the covered bridge. Most visitors skip it; the mile between the two falls is the best of Lieber SRA.
Directions, season & rules for Lower Cataract Falls →A hundred-foot-wide, 14-foot limestone curtain in a free county preserve — with a bridgeless creek ford as the price of the best view.
Directions, season & rules for Anderson Falls →
The Clifty gorge system without the state park crowds — 45 feet at the bottom of a real 350-foot descent near Hanover College. No dogs, no fee, no company.
Directions, season & rules for Crowe Falls →
Kenneth Cascade — its actual name — in a quarry park where divers explore a sunken school bus. Spring for the falls, summer for the swim.
Directions, season & rules for France Park Falls →Rankings reflect our research, not a verdict on your trip — every spot page takes community ratings and conditions reports, and that's where the real answer to "is it worth it?" lives.