Bristol Cliffs Falls

Bristol Cliffs Falls is a 400-foot tiered in Vermont, on unnamed watercourse. The water falls in 2 distinct tiers.

It's fullest after rain, and flow can drop off during dry spells — plan around recent weather.

Plungeworthy rates Bristol Cliffs Falls 9/10 — drop everything. The score weighs its scale, how confidently it's mapped, and its character.

Know what this listing is: Bristol Cliffs Falls is a real feature — two separate seasonal channels dropping down an exposed cliff face inside the tiny Bristol Cliffs Wilderness, one forming a ~230-foot veiling horsetail and a second, narrower ~160-foot horsetail in an adjacent gully — but it is not a practically visitable destination.

There is no maintained trail to it or anywhere in the wilderness area — by federal wilderness designation, none exists — and the occasional footpaths described by specialist sources are faint and hard to follow. The base of the cliff is loose talus, there's no legal parking on Route 116 near the site, and the cliff face itself is considered unsafe for climbing.

Specialist waterfall sources are blunt about it: this is a feature for dedicated waterfall-baggers to admire from a distance, more popular with winter ice climbers than summer visitors. If you want to see it, the honest recommendation is a distant view from Route 116 south of Bristol during spring snowmelt — the channels are likely dry outside that window.

Spring snowmelt is the only reliable flow window given the small drainage; the rest of the year the channels are likely reduced to a trickle or dry.