A tall waterfall pours in a bright, silky sheet down a rocky cliff, framed by dense leafy branches in the foreground. Mist gathers at the base as the water crashes into a shallow pool, with steep canyon walls rising behind it.

Box Canyon Falls

Ouray, CO

Box Canyon Falls is a 285-foot waterfall that drops through a narrow quartzite canyon only 20 feet wide. A steel bridge and viewing platform provide a dramatic vantage point inside the canyon where the spray and roar of Canyon Creek fill the enclosed space. The site is a designated National Natural Landmark.

Photography Guide

Best Time: any
Crowds: Moderate
Shot Types: widelong-exposuredetail
Best Seasons: springsummer

Practical Tips

There is a small admission fee. The canyon is shaded and cool; bring a jacket. A tripod is useful for long-exposure shots of the falls in the dim canyon light.

Is it a good day to go?

7-day outlook

Mild, dry days with light winds are the most comfortable for a visit.

Forecast by Open-Meteo. Verdicts weigh the forecast against the conditions that suit this spot.

Author's Comments

You enter the canyon and the temperature drops ten degrees. That is the first thing. The second is the sound, which is not a sound so much as a pressure, water moving through a slot of quartzite barely wide enough to call a passage. Twenty feet across. Two hundred and eighty-five feet of vertical fall. The bridge puts you inside the geology rather than alongside it, and that changes how the photograph has to work. I do not think a wide lens fully captures what this place is. The canyon is too narrow, the light too compressed, and a wide frame flattens the depth that you can feel pressing in from both walls. I have had better luck working tight, finding the places where water meets stone and letting the long exposure smooth the chaos into something more like silk. June is when the snowmelt is pushing through hardest, and the spray is heavy enough that you will be wiping your front element every thirty seconds. Bring a cloth. Bring a jacket, because the canyon stays cool even in July when Ouray itself is warm. The light here does not come and go the way it does in open country. It filters down from somewhere above and arrives diffused, almost theatrical, the kind of soft cathedral light that makes a tripod essential and a fast lens secondary. Any hour works because no hour is truly bright. I tend to go midday when the sun is closer to overhead and a sliver of direct light occasionally finds the falls themselves. When that happens, you have about four minutes. Be ready.

Gallery

A tall waterfall drops in a silky white curtain between sheer canyon walls, with mist pooling at the base and dense trees framing the falls on both sides. The black-and-white image emphasizes the rugged rock texture and the enclosed, dramatic feel of the gorge. Photo: Grand Canyon National Park / Wikimedia Commons / CC BY 2.0

A tall waterfall pours in silky streams over a dark cliff into a misty pool, framed by steep layered canyon walls and sparse trees in the foreground. Bright sunlight catches the rock face, emphasizing the rugged textures and narrow opening above the falls. Photo: Grand Canyon National Park / Wikimedia Commons / CC BY 2.0

A tall waterfall pours in silky streams off a sheer canyon wall into a shadowed pool, with sunlit layered cliffs rising around a narrow gorge. Dark trees and brush fill the lower foreground, emphasizing the enclosed scale of the canyon. Photo: Grand Canyon National Park / Wikimedia Commons / CC BY 2.0

A tall, narrow waterfall plunges into a dark pool between sheer canyon walls, with mist softening the bright upper rim. Several people stand on the wet rocks at the base, emphasizing the scale of the enclosed gorge. Photo: Grand Canyon National Park / Wikimedia Commons / CC BY 2.0

A black-and-white view of a broad waterfall pouring in two silky streams over a dark cliff into a pool below, framed by bare branches and steep layered rock walls. Sunlight catches the pale stone above the falls, while the surrounding canyon stays in deep shadow. Photo: Grand Canyon National Park / Wikimedia Commons / CC BY 2.0

A broad black-and-white waterfall spills in multiple silky streams over a dark rock ledge, framed by bright trees in the foreground and steep canyon walls on both sides. Sunlight washes the upper right of the scene, making the falling water glow against the shaded cliff. Photo: Grand Canyon National Park / Wikimedia Commons / CC BY 2.0

A tall, narrow waterfall drops in a smooth white sheet between dark, sheer canyon walls into a misty pool below. The black-and-white composition emphasizes the enclosed rock face, with bright light catching the rim and sparse trees above the falls. Photo: Grand Canyon National Park / Wikimedia Commons / CC BY 2.0

A tall waterfall pours in a smooth white sheet into a shallow river, framed by dense trees and dark canyon walls. Sunlight catches the mist and rippling water, with rocky ledges and low cascades in the foreground. Photo: Grand Canyon National Park / Wikimedia Commons / CC BY 2.0

A tall, narrow waterfall pours straight down between sheer canyon walls, turning into a silky white veil in the long exposure. A person stands at the base for scale, emphasizing how massive the dark, striated rock face is around the falls. Photo: Grand Canyon National Park / Wikimedia Commons / CC BY 2.0

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afternoonsummer · fall