About Falls Near Me

Falls Near Me is a free map of the named waterfalls in the United States, built to answer one question quickly: what waterfalls are near me? Most waterfall lists online cover a dozen favourites in one state. We wanted every named fall on one map, sorted by distance from wherever you are, with enough detail to decide whether to go.

How the map is built

The map merges two public data sources. The USGS Geographic Names Information System (GNIS) is the federal register of official place names, maintained with the US Board on Geographic Names, and it records every named waterfall with its county and coordinates. OpenStreetMap is the volunteer-built map of the world, whose mappers add falls GNIS lacks and often record a height. A fall that appears in both is matched by its GNIS identifier, or by name within a mile and a half, and counted once. The current build holds 5,731 waterfalls and dates from 2026-09-23.

What it does not know

The map knows where falls are. It does not know whether a trail reaches them, whether the land is open, or how much water is flowing today. Unnamed falls are not included. Heights exist only where an OpenStreetMap mapper recorded one, and published heights often differ between sources. Always check the land manager before you go, and see our waterfall safety guide.

Privacy

Location lookups happen in your browser: the waterfall data downloads to your device and distances are calculated there. Typed places go to OpenStreetMap's Nominatim service to become coordinates, and the map tiles come from OpenStreetMap. We use Google Analytics to count visits. See the privacy policy.

Credits

Waterfall names and positions: U.S. Geological Survey, Geographic Names Information System (public domain), and © OpenStreetMap contributors, available under the Open Database License. Map tiles © OpenStreetMap contributors. Mapping library: Leaflet.

Corrections

If a waterfall is missing, misplaced or has the wrong height, email hello@fallsnearme.com with the name, the state and, if you can, a link to a source. Corrections to OpenStreetMap itself help everyone who uses it, and flow into our next rebuild.