HikeInWhistler.com

HikeInWhistler.com

Menu
  • Hike
      • Alexander Falls Provincial Park
      • Ancient Cedars & Showh Lakes
      • Black Tusk in Garibaldi Park
      • Blackcomb Mountain Hiking Trails
      • Brandywine Falls Provincial Park
      • Brandywine Meadows
      • Brew Lake & Mount Brew
      • Callaghan Lake Park
      • Cheakamus Lake in Garibaldi Park
      • Cheakamus River & Interpretive Forest
      • Cirque Lake in Callaghan Valley
      • Flank Trail (Rainbow-Sproatt)
      • Garibaldi Lake in Garibaldi Park
      • Helm Creek in Garibaldi Park
      • Jane Lakes West
      • Joffre Lakes Provincial Park
      • Keyhole Hot Springs
      • Logger's Lake
      • Madeley Lake & Hanging Lake
      • Meager Hot Springs
      • Nairn Falls Provincial Park
      • Newt Lake & Ancient Cedars
      • Panorama Ridge in Garibaldi Park
      • Parkhurst Ghost Town
      • Rainbow Falls
      • Rainbow Lake
      • Ring Lake & Conflict Lake
      • Russet Lake in Garibaldi Park
      • Sea to Sky Trail
      • Skookumchuck Hot Springs
      • Sloquet Hot Springs
      • Sproatt West(Northair) Trail
      • Sproatt East(Stonebridge) Trail
      • Train Wreck & Trash Trail
      • Taylor Meadows in Garibaldi Park
      • Wedgemount Lake in Garibaldi Park
      • Whistler Mountain Hiking Trails
  • Snow
      • Blueberry Trail Snowshoeing
      • Brandywine Falls Snowshoeing
      • Cheakamus River Snowshoeing
      • Elfin Lakes Snowshoeing
      • Flank Trail Snowshoeing
      • Joffre Lakes Snowshoeing
      • Nairn Falls Snowshoeing
      • Parkhurst Ghost Town Snowshoeing
      • Rainbow Falls Snowshoeing
      • Rainbow Lake Snowshoeing
      • Rainbow Park Snowshoeing
      • Sproatt East Snowshoeing
      • Taylor Meadows Snowshoeing
      • Train Wreck Snowshoeing
      • Wedgemount Lake Snowshoeing
  • Run
      • Whistler Golf Course 5k(3.1 Mile)
      • Blueberry Hill 6k(3.7 Mile)
      • Lost Lake 6k(3.7 Mile)
      • Alta Lake 8k(5 Mile)
      • Fitzsimmons Creek 9k(5.6 Mile)
      • Alta Green Lost 15k(9.3 Mile)
  • Best
      • Best Whistler Hiking by Month
          • Best by Month
      • Best Walk, Bike or Bus To Trails
      • Best Whistler Kid Friendly Trails
      • Best Whistler Dog Friendly Trails
      • Best Free Camping in Whistler
      • Best Sights Sea to Sky
      • Best Whistler Waterfalls
      • Best Whistler Aerial Views
      • Best Squamish Hiking Trails
      • Best Whistler Hiking Trails
      • Best Vancouver Hiking Trails
      • Best Whistler Snowshoeing
          • Best Whistler Snowshoe Trails
      • Best Whistler Running Trails
      • Best Whistler Hiking Gear Rentals
      • Best Whistler Parks & Beaches
  • AtoZ
      • Ablation Zone
      • Accumulation Zone
      • Adit Lakes
      • Aiguille
      • Alpine Zone
      • Arborlith or Lithophyte
      • Arête
      • A River Runs Through It
      • Armchair Glacier
      • The Barrier
      • Battleship Islands
      • Bears
      • Bench
      • Bergschrund or Schrund
      • Bivouac or Bivy
      • Blue Face House in Parkhurst
      • Bungee Bridge
      • Cairns & Inukshuks
      • Carter, Neal
      • Caterpillar D8
      • Caterpillar RD8
      • Chimney
      • Cirque or Cirque Lake
      • Cloudraker Skybridge
      • Coast Mountains
      • Col
      • Crevasse
      • Deadfall
      • Emerald Forest
      • Erratic or Glacier Erratic
      • The Fissile
      • Fitzsimmons Creek
      • Fitzsimmons Range
      • Fyles, Tom
      • Garibaldi Ranges
      • Garibaldi Volcanic Belt
      • Gemel or Inosculation
      • Glacier Window
      • Green Lake
      • Hoary Marmot
      • Krummholz
      • Moraine
      • Mount Garibaldi
      • Mount James Turner
      • Northair Mine
      • Nunatuk
      • Overlord Mountain & Glacier
      • Peak2Peak Gondola
      • Roundhouse Lodge
      • Rubble Creek
      • Spearhead Range
      • Tarn
      • The Table
      • Usnea or Old Man's Beard
      • Western Redcedar
  • Maps
      • Alexander Falls Maps
      • Ancient Cedars Maps
      • Black Tusk Maps
      • Blackcomb Mountain Maps
      • Brandywine Falls Maps
      • Brandywine Meadows Maps
      • Brew Lake Maps
      • Callaghan Lake Maps
      • Cheakamus Lake Maps
      • Cheakamus River Maps
      • Cirque Lake Maps
      • Garibaldi Lake Maps
      • Helm Creek Maps
      • Joffre Lakes Maps
      • Keyhole Hot Springs Maps
      • Logger's Lake Maps
      • Madeley Lake Maps
      • Meager Hot Springs Maps
      • Nairn Falls Maps
      • Panorama Ridge Maps
      • Parkhurst Ghost Town Maps
      • Rainbow Falls Maps
      • Rainbow Lake Maps
      • Ring Lake Maps
      • Russet Lake Maps
      • Skookumchuck Maps
      • Sloquet Hot Springs Maps
      • Sproatt Maps
      • Taylor Meadows Maps
      • Train Wreck Maps
      • Wedgemount Lake Maps
      • Whistler Mountain Maps
  • More
      • Whistler Hiking News & Blog
      • Live Whistler Webcams
      • Live Tofino Webcams
      • Live Vancouver Webcams
      • Garibaldi Provincial Park
      • Hike in Whistler Glossary

Cirque Lake

Brandywine Meadows

Wedgemount Lake

Black Tusk

Adit Lakes

Joffre Lakes

Callaghan Lake

Newt Lake

Northair Mine

Wedgemount Lake

Whistler Train Wreck

Black Tusk

Logger's Lake

Spectacular Whistler!

Whistler hiking is wonderful! Check out our Best Whistler Hiking by Month guides! WeRentGear.com rents tents, sleeping bags, sleeping pads, camp stoves, packs, complete kits and more!

Best Trails This Week!

Best This Week: Whistler Train Wreck and Parkhurst Ghost Town are easy, fun and dog friendly. Check out our August and September Whistler and Garibaldi Park guides here!

The short, scenic and easy hiking trail to Rainbow Falls is located just a short, half kilometre from the Rainbow Lake or Rainbow Trail trailhead. The trail begins by ascending into deep forest and the trail winds left, right, up and down constantly.  Twentyone Mile Creek, always on your right can be either seen or heard as you hike through beautiful forest to the somewhat hidden Rainbow Falls. 

  • Short trail through beautiful forest to hidden falls
  • Much quieter than most other trails
  • Easy to bike or walk to from Whistler Village
  • Trail is always winding up & down, never boring
  • Great to see on the way to Rainbow Lake
  • Rainbow Park is great to see and close by
  • The falls are not very big or impressive
  • Tricky to get a nice view of the falls
  • Not a lot to see on the short trail
  • Nice to see, but not a must see

Twentyone Mile Creek begins, 8 kilometres away as it drains from Rainbow Lake, making its way eventually to the River of Golden Dreams, before finally draining into Green Lake north of Whistler Village.  A couple minutes into the Rainbow Trail and you come to a fork in the path. You can take either path as they rejoin further up the trail, however taking the right fork is more scenic and only a little more of a steep climb.  A second fork in the trail appears a couple minutes later again, and once again taking the right fork is better. You will then come to a small trail sign indicating "Rainbow Falls". This short trail takes you to the little oasis that Rainbow Falls flows into. After seeing Rainbow Falls, there are a couple more nice vantage points just a short hike further up the Rainbow Trail. If you backtrack from the falls and rejoin the Rainbow Trail, you will zig-zag up some short switchbacks, before coming out to the gravel access road to the water treatment building. Here you will find a nice mapboard showing the Rainbow Trail and some of the connecting trails.

Rainbow Falls Hiking Trail Map

Rainbow Falls Map v11

This section of trail overlaps with the 40 kilometre, Rainbow-Sproatt Flank Trail, so you will see some "Flank Trail" signs as well as Rainbow Lake signs.  If you follow the Flank Trail as it ascends past the water treatment building on its right side, you will quickly come to the beautiful bridge across Twentyone Mile Creek. This is a great vantage point over this very scenic creek. The Flank Trail continues for several kilometres beyond this bridge, eventually coming out near Ancient Cedars, well north of Whistler Village.

Rainbow Falls South of the Main Falls

Rainbow Falls Map v6a

The Rainbow Trail

Rainbow Falls TrailheadThe trailhead is a short 15 minute drive from Whistler Village. There is parking at the Rainbow Trail, trailhead as well as Rainbow Park just a couple hundred metres further up Alta Lake Road. At the trailhead you will see an excellent map-board indicating the trails in front of you. There are no signs to Rainbow Falls and you will just see signs for Rainbow Lake, The Flank Trail and Madeley Lake. To find Rainbow Falls you just follow the Rainbow Lake trail from the trailhead for about a half kilometre until you reach the water treatment building (Rainbow Lake is Whistler's water source).  Just before the building the trail forks.

Rainbow Falls in Whistler

Rainbow Falls Boulders in 21 Mile Creek

Rainbow Trail Directions Map

Rainbow Lake Map v11

More Rainbow Falls Hiking info...

More Whistler & Garibaldi Park Hiking Maps!

Rainbow Falls Maps

The short, scenic and easy hiking trail to Rainbow Falls is located just a short, half kilometre from the Rainbow Lake or Rainbow Trail trailhead. The trail begins by ...
Read more

Whistler Mountain Maps

The alpine hiking trails on Whistler Mountain are the ultimate in luxurious hiking. Little hiking effort gets you amazing views of turquoise lakes, snowy mountain, valleys of ...
Read more

Skookumchuck Hot Springs Maps

Skookumchuck Hot Springs(aka T'sek Hot Springs and St. Agnes Well), located two hours north of Whistler along the edge of the huge Lillooet River. The name Skookumchuck ...
Read more

Brew Lake Maps

Brew Lake is beautiful mountain lake just a short drive south of Whistler and is relatively unknown and seldom hiked. Laying at the base of Mount Brew, Brew Lake lays in a ...
Read more
More Whistler Hiking Trail Maps

Complete West Coast Trail Hiking Guide

Whistler & Garibaldi Park Glossary A to Z

Porteau Cove is a beautiful little stop on the drive to or from Whistler. You will notice the lack of convenient washroom stops on the way to or from ...
Read more
Russet Lake sits in a wide, glacier carved valley at the base of The Fissile.  In the direction opposite The Fissile, up on a plateau less than a ...
Read more
Whistler, the surrounding mountains, and Garibaldi Provincial Park are home to two types of bears.  Black bears and grizzly bears.  Black bears are ...
Read more
Cornice: a wind deposited wave of snow on a ridge, often overhanging a steep slope or cliff.  They are the result of snow building up on the crest of a ...
Read more
Wedge Creek cuts through the valley that separates Wedge Mountain and Blackcomb Mountain and empties into Green River near the north end of Green Lake.  ...
Read more
Charles Townsend (1900-1997) moved from London, England to Vancouver in the early 1920's where he met Neal Carter while studying Agriculture at UBC. Townsend was ...
Read more
Western redcedar is a very large tree commonly found in the Pacific Northwest. Frequently growing up to 70 metres and with a trunk diameter of 7 metres, ...
Read more
Every unusual phenomenon in the forest seems to have a name, but one natural work of art seems to be without a commonly used name.  Big trees with ...
Read more
More Hike in Whistler Glossary

Free Camping Gear Delivery to Garibaldi Park

The Best Whistler & Garibaldi Park Hiking Trails!

Cheakamus River is a beautiful, crashing, turquoise coloured river that flows from Cheakamus Lake, through Whistler Interpretive Forest, then down past Brandywine Falls to Daisy Lake, then all the way to ...
Read more
Madeley Lake is a gorgeous mountain lake located high up in the Callaghan Valley just a short drive past Alexander Falls.  From Whistler Village it takes about 50 minutes to drive the 27.4 kilometres to get ...
Read more
Wedgemount Lake itself is a magnificent destination for a day hike or spectacular overnight beneath the dazzling mountain peaks and stars above Garibaldi Provincial Park. Many sleep under the stars on one of ...
Read more
The Sea to Sky Trail is a 180 kilometre multi-use trail that runs from Squamish to D'Arcy. The trail is still under construction in many parts, however, the amazing route through Whistler is finally in ...
Read more
More Whistler Hiking Trails & Maps

HikeInWhistler.com HikeInWhistler.com © 2025
  • Contact Us: [email protected]