Kootenai Falls

Kootenai Falls
Location	Lincoln County, Montana United States
Coordinates	48°27′20″N 115°45′48″W / 48.4555015°N 115.763198°W / 48.4555015; -115.763198
Type	Plunge
Total height	17 metres (56 ft)[1]
Longest drop	9 metres (30 ft)[1]
Average width	258 metres (846.5 ft)[1]
Watercourse	Kootenai River
Average flow rate	731 m3/s (25,820 cu ft/s)[1]

Kootenai Falls is a waterfall on the Kootenai River located in Lincoln County, Montana, just off U.S. Route 2. It is the largest undammed waterfall in the state and one of the largest waterfalls in the United States by flow rate. The falls is accessed by a foot trail from the parking area next to the highway.

Historically a sacred site to the local Kootenai Tribe, the falls became a popular tourist destination in the 2010s due to the Kootenai Falls Swinging Bridge just downstream. The bridge was constructed in the 1930s by the Civilian Conservation Corps to help with the US Forest Service's firefighting efforts. It has been rebuilt twice, most recently in 2019 to facilitate better safety for the increasing number of visitors. The bridge and falls have made appearances in movies such as The River Wild (1994) and The Revenant (2015).

The area's ecology includes large animals such as bighorn sheep and American black bears, while the geology includes compressed, folded sandstone and shale dating back millions of years, with visible remnants of algae mats and water marks from when Montana was covered by water.