The falls plunge a sheer 228 feet in to an impressive, gaping, craggy canyon, with the volcanic remains of Spiral Butte looming behind, and Clear Lake visible in the distance. The canyon appears to have been formed by a process known as frost wedging. Water seeps into cracks in the rock, then freezes and thaws repeatedly, as the day cycles. The constant expanding and contraction of the ice in the cracks makes the rock cleave from the cliffs, and fall to the floor of the canyon. Because of this, at the bottom of the falls, the streambed is extremely rocky, and when the creek is running low, the water seeps underground, disappearing from view for several hundred yards.
