Porcupine Falls (Bighorns)
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| | Difficulty:POI 1 (v1) Raps:
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| Best season: | May-Oct (avg for this region)
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44.8560, -107.9153
44.8577, -107.9128
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Waterflow
Introduction
Porcupine Falls (120') was considered for a descent, but the amount of flow and geometry made this unsafe. Adding bolts to rappel next to the falls safely, we concluded make this a stunt rappel.
Instead, this entry in ropewiki has been added as a Point of Interest hike and to satisfy the curiosity of what lies above.
Porcupine Falls has the novelty of an old mine tunnel, which diverts part of the flow in spring runoff in June, but dries out by July.
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Porcupine Falls with flowing mine tunnel at the bottom of the falls, hiking the trail in June
Approach
Park at (44.85786, -107.91260)
Hike 0.4 miles down a well maintained trail to the giant pool at the bottom of the falls to view the waterfall.
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Exit
From the bottom of the falls, return back up the trail to the parking lot
Alternate Off-Trail Path to the top of Porcupine Falls
To reach the top of Porcupine Falls, scramble downhill from the parking lot trending right downhill and down canyon right (DCR) to the top of the falls.
We evaluated July flow + geometry as too great a risk and without a significant payoff. This is a pretty waterfall that would be a rappelling stunt rather than a canyon. We felt that placing bolts was overkill to create a safe line next to the falls. We reversed and returned to the parking lot.
- There are an abundance of rocks to rig for natural anchors, but in the still-high flow in July, this natural anchor would require swimming across the flow in the pool.
- A significant amount of water without aeration pours over the lip where a rappeler would have to share the space for a moment, while managing a rope bag.
- If a rappeler lost control, the geometry would push the person DCR (= rappeler's right) into a crack which accumulates the water volume.
- Even if a rappeler maintained control and successfully got to DCL, they would still need to fight the angle of the rock to stay out of the flow.
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July 2025: Top pool and lip above Porcupine Falls
Red tape
Beta sites
All Trails: Porcupine Falls Trail
Trip reports and media
Photos from June 2024 and July 2025. Ira Lewis, Lisa Lewis, Andrew Tanasescu, Kati Write, Carl Bern, Wayne Herrick