Tick It Before You Kick It

Rifle Falls - Waterfalls You Won't Want to Miss

• Alexandra Lauren | The Bucket List Mermaid • Season 1 • Episode 18

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💎What hidden gem in Colorado leaves even seasoned RV travelers in awe?

Read the full show notes 👉 here for more resources to get you to Rifle Falls!

This week on Tick It Before You Kick It, Alexandra and her mother share their surprising adventure to Rifle Falls State Park. 

🧐Initially skeptical, they quickly found themselves enchanted by the park's breathtaking triple waterfalls, which are just a brief two-minute stroll from the parking lot. 

🏔️With interconnected trails offering multiple stunning viewpoints and the unexpected discovery of intriguing caves, this episode promises to inspire your wanderlust and show you why Rifle Falls should be on your adventure bucket list.

💦Journey with us as we question the value of venturing off popular tourist paths to uncover lesser-known marvels like Rifle Falls. 

🌲We provide all the essential details, from the park's convenient location near Rifle and Glenwood Springs to its rich historical background. 

Lace up your hiking boots and prepare for an unforgettable escapade with us! 🥾

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Lex:

I could be running around naked and you'd still be like waterfall. Hey there, adventurers, my name is Alexandra and welcome to Take it Before you Kick at the podcast where we talk about everything that should be on your adventure bucket list and some hilarious travel stories. So this week we are going to be talking about one of the most hidden gem Colorado state parks. You do actually two. We are currently at Rifle Gap State Park and about eight minutes away is Rifle Falls State Park, and we're going to be coming to you telling you all about this beautiful destination and how we've never heard of it. Have you heard of it? No, I am joined here by my mother, who lives full time with me in this RV adventure. We are traveling across the US and Colorado, bringing you all the things that you can put on your adventure bucket list, and this one really took my breath away here.

Lex:

So let's start a little bit about what is Rifle Falls State Park. It basically was an established park in 1966. And this area was originally part of a settlement used by early pioneers in the late 1800s, so the falls themselves has always been the main attraction. I mean, it steals the show Absolutely, and that's saying a lot, because this area is very, very beautiful. It was originally settled for agricultural purposes, but then people just began to realize that it just had stunning natural beauty and the surrounding areas. It's about what 45 minutes away from Glenwood?

Pam:

Springs.

Lex:

So and we actually hiked Hanging Lake, which is another beautiful waterfall.

Lex:

We'll have to do a little podcast on that one later, however, that was about an hour away, so it's really conveniently located away from everything. But you don't need to go far, because we're set up here in Rifle Gap State Park and, yeah, rifle Falls is only about eight minutes away. It's wonderful. And what makes this so amazing? So the crown jewel of Rifle Falls State Park is undoubtedly the triple waterfalls and yes, I said triple. They are 70 feet high. I looked up a picture of this, as did you right, and I was like, oh, that's really cool, but I bet it's really lame. I've just seen so many amazing waterfalls everywhere else, like Bali and Fiji, and I'm just not used to these cascading long 70 plus foot waterfalls and there's three in this location. So tell us your experience of seeing these waterfalls for the first time.

Pam:

You know what I really liked about this is whenever I go someplace, I'm always thinking who needs to come back here and see it? Who?

Lex:

needs to come back here and see it. She's a people pleaser.

Pam:

I am a people pleaser and an enabler, but these falls are so spectacular, it's not a crazy hike. No, really. Anybody can go Probably like two minutes. Yeah, maybe two minutes, so you just park your car and just walk to the falls.

Lex:

Yeah, because that's the thing about Hanging Lake is that, yeah, it's beautiful, but you need to hike three hours in order to get to it.

Pam:

Exactly, but with these ones you really don't need to hike at all, they're right there.

Lex:

They do have an interconnected woven trail network that can let you see the waterfalls from different angles, which is pretty cool. Like you can actually go above the waterfall to both sides and out in front, so that was really cool, but the initial trek to the waterfall is really nothing.

Pam:

It's really not. So I'd say it's really a fall that anyone can go see. My knees are terrible and it was an easy, easy jaunt from the parking lot and then you just turn the corner and the power and the noise it just spectacular like jaw-dropping spectacular, yeah, well, yeah, our jaws dropped to the floor.

Lex:

Oh yeah, absolutely yeah, and then, um, talk a little bit about, when we went to the left and started going up these trails, what we found accidentally caves there's caves.

Pam:

We love caves. We had no clue that there were caves and so we just kind of thought they were mere dents in the mountain. But you can actually go inside these caves and explore. Yeah, there's some pretty big chambers in there, yeah, and we actually are going to go back and just do the caves. We were just so obsessed with the waterfall that we just couldn't leave.

Lex:

There's so many caves and one of the caves you kind of squeeze through and it's so surprisingly dark, very dark, for how shallow it is, I don't know. It's like not that deep. I mean, it's a pretty good chamber for a cave.

Pam:

I mean, if you're a caver, these are lame, but if you're, for somebody who doesn't go caving or spelunking that often, it was such a treat, just a complete surprise.

Lex:

Yeah, and we had no clue.

Pam:

We were going for the waterfalls and then whoop, there's the caves and I think there's a lot of them, and so I think we missed a lot of them. We missed a lot of them. We're gonna have to go back, I know, gotta go, just have to go back.

Lex:

So let's talk about some of the logistics of rifle falls and these waterfalls, just to better help you if you do want to go here. So let's talk about the location. This is about 14 miles north of the town of Rifle, colorado, which, again, have never heard of. We were previously staying in Silt. We had never heard of, has nothing into it, but, as I said, it's a little bit farther away from Glenwood Springs. Glenwood Springs is about what? Two and a half hours, three hours from Denver? Yeah, oh, yeah.

Lex:

So it's definitely a day hike. You could do it. You basically go up I-70, which is we make a joke it's Colorado's most terrible road. I don't know what do you think is Colorado's most terrible road Colorado Boulevard or I-70? The potholes? I-70, it's the only way in and out from the mountains and if you want to go skiing in any of the major resorts like Breckenridge and Keystone and A-Bay, loveland, copper, vail literally all of them are up I-70. And there's just only one way in, one way out, unless you want to drive like five hours over Independent Pass and I just feel like, oh man, what was the joke that they were making? It's like, oh yeah, they call it I-70 because you're either going seven or zero. The amount of times I've been stuck on this road, oh, anyway, so you do have to go up by 70. However, once you get past, there's this drive called Glenwood Canyon.

Pam:

Oh.

Lex:

And it's one of my favorite things ever. It actually is. It's incredible, Like it's literally a drive where you just drive and you have rock faces going straight up.

Pam:

And.

Lex:

I'm, again, a good sucker for mountain roads. If you do want to hear my glenwood springs bucket list because I have an entire article on everything that you can do in glenwood springs, plus hiking hanging lake, if you are interested in that yeah, so that's close to rifle and then you just would basically keep going on i-70 and then it's about like a 25 minute drive. Once you get off of i-70, it was definitely interesting bringing the rig. Um, we drive this massive rig and we always make this joke she goes forwards and I go backwards.

Lex:

But I wanted to mix it up.

Pam:

Because she just thought oh, look, a 20 minute drive, how bad could that be? And then these roads ended up being very narrow, two lane and windy, so you're just going and just praying that you just don't clip something. Oh gosh, yeah, and I was.

Lex:

I missed the left turn into Rifle Gap and started going towards Rifle Falls and ended up turning on this random road and making this really tight U-turn and I'm so glad that I ended up making it, but, yeah, super stressful. So keep that in mind, if you do have larger vehicles, that these roads are a little bit tight, at least for our massive 42 foot fifth wheel. Exactly, exactly Some of the things that you can do at Rifle Falls. As I said, you can go caving, you can go hiking. I did read that there were some wildlife watching and camping. When we were actually going to Rifle Falls, we saw some of the rangers giving a class with shooting, so I'm not quite sure what that was all about, but that's really cool. Like a hunting class maybe that's pretty fun. And then camping. So we're currently camped at Rifle Gap, which again is about eight minutes away from Rifle Falls, because it has.

Pam:

It's right on the water. The water is beautifully green and you can paddleboard to your heart's content. It's just this small little lake, surrounded by mountains.

Lex:

Honestly, I love it here. This is an amazing RV destination. If you have an RV, this needs to be on your list 100%. There are some really, really good spots here.

Pam:

And we are going to label them for you, so you know which spots to get.

Lex:

Yes, I'm going to do an entire guide to Rifle Gap State Park, so definitely keep your eye out for that. I will link it in the show notes and it's also on my website, thebucketlistmermaidcom. And then also there's actually camping at Rifle Falls itself. It's very tiny. At Rifle Falls they have 13 spots and the little ranger said that they do fill up pretty quickly from like three to six months In advance yes, and there's a lot of shade.

Pam:

So as far as wooded and shaded, it's awesome, but there's no lake.

Lex:

You are like walking distance within the waterfall, so that's a perk. Oh yeah, from every spot. Yeah, definitely there's some pull through spots like it's pretty nice and shaded it was very clean yeah.

Pam:

Just very organized well.

Lex:

Very clean Rifle Gap, I feel like is more for the panoramic lake, mountain views. There's not a ton of shade, but We'll take it. You know we'll take it. So best time to visit I would say summer or winter. We are here in the heat of summer and it's beautiful.

Lex:

It is a little toasty. It did cool off a little bit, but it's kind of perfect for going and exploring those waterfalls. You might get more crowds, since it's summer. It was pretty crowded when we went. People know it's cool, so keep that in mind. Yes, however, I did see a picture of it on the official Rifle Falls State Park website of it in winter, oh, and something about how, because there's constant water, it like crystallizes and makes these little ice structures and caves in there. So this might be pretty cool too in winter.

Pam:

So I think it's summer, winter, but yeah, I mean, spring would be fine, fall would be fine. I should have fall, you would get the fall leaves, so really anytime. And plus it's not if you could do come here in the winter. You don't have to cross a lot of icy terrain to get to this waterfall.

Lex:

Yeah, that is true, you would only have to, you know, breathe it. I mean, unless you wanted to hike the trails. But hey, I'd still do it. I would do it too. I'd still do it 100%. But we're crazy. Yeah, yeah, we are. We are just a little bit crazy. If you haven't heard our episode on Rafting the Royal Gorge, we joked that little tiny voice that tells you that this probably isn't the entrance fee. This is a state park, so keep in mind that you will need to show your vehicle registration. If you do have that state park pass on your vehicle registration. If not, I believe the daily entrance fee is $10. Yeah, it's not bad. So, yeah, not terrible. But if you do have that state park entrance fee pass on your vehicle registration, go for it, work it out and you'll get in for free.

Lex:

But very impressed. I'm going to be honest. It did not feel like Colorado. I felt like we were in Africa or something. Yes, like it just felt so cool and I just love any sort of waterfall. But to see those three cascading waterfalls and you can actually kind of walk behind them to the left a little bit, the back of them, or go around, they're just stunning.

Pam:

But seeing a waterfowl from the back is just fun, because you don't really get to do it that often, right, right?

Lex:

And of course I had to take my mermaid tail, because I'm a traveling mermaid and the pictures are just.

Lex:

Let's just say you're not, you're not looking at my tail, you're looking at the waterfall. Steal the show A hundred percent. I could be running around naked and you'd still be like waterfall. Yes, oh yes. It's definitely a must visit for anyone looking to experience just the beauty of Colorado in a serene and pretty accessible Like. I feel like it's wheelchair accessible. I think we could take Bapa up there. Yes, bapa is our handicapped grandfather and we're just constantly looking for things for him to do.

Pam:

Yes, if we got a neat shot of his wheelchair, I think we could four wheel it for just a little bit.

Lex:

Oh yeah, yeah, we're very aware of all of the ADA stuff, but I think I think he could actually do that one, and that would be one heck of a jaunt for El Bapo?

Pam:

Yeah, because I think the only time he's been behind a waterfall is Casa Bonita.

Lex:

So this definitely beats Casa Bonita. Definitely different from Casa Bonita. Oh my gosh, if you didn't know, casa Bonita is a very iconic restaurant down in Denver. Oh, absolutely, and it's currently being renovated.

Pam:

Yes, and they did a phenomenal job.

Lex:

They just finished it and people are lining up just to get on the waiting list.

Pam:

I think we actually waited over a year.

Lex:

But they have a huge waterfall. I'm going to be honest this waterfall better than Casa Bonita, oh sure.

Pam:

However, there are not any cliff divers at this waterfall Full disclaimer yes, you are not allowed to put any appendage into the water.

Lex:

Yes, and because it's so clear, it's so clear.

Pam:

The water is so clear, absolutely love it.

Lex:

The triple waterfalls alone are worth the trip, worth the drive, but you know just all the parks, trails, the caves, the camping spot. It just makes it a destination like we're. We're gonna come back. It's I would come back every year. It is absolutely amazing. So definitely tell us what you think. Would you go a little bit out of your way to go to this colorado hidden gem that not a lot of people, including including locals, know about, or would you stick to the more touristy areas? Definitely, let me know in the comments, in the show notes, and definitely go visit those show notes, because I'm going to be putting in all the resources to get you here just to make sure that you can check this off of your adventure bucket list. I just want to see you pack your bags, lace your hiking boots and just get ready to fall in love with Rifle Falls.

Pam:

Absolutely, huge, huge thumbs up to this. Now, I don't think it had a Pokestop, so it doesn't get a 10 out of 10.

Lex:

My mother- is still obsessed with Pokemon. For all my Pokemon lovers, please let me know, because she is still knee deep in the Pokemon.

Pam:

Oh yes, way past, when it was really cool.

Lex:

So there is no Pokestop at Rifle Falls State Park, but there is no poke stop at rifle fall state park, but there is a hanging lake. Yeah, she was playing pokemon all the way to hanging lake. Oh, thank you guys. So much for listening and we will see you next week. Keep adventuring.