Rainbow Falls Hike in flip flops: Mammoth Lakes, California

Confession time! I did not prepare for this hike. I always research stuff ahead of time but this time I didn’t. For some reason, I had it in my head that Rainbow Falls was one of those pullouts on the side of a road where you could just snap a pic and be on your way. I knew that you had to take the shuttle bus but I didn’t know that this was a 3 mile trudge through the forest.

In order to visit Rainbow Falls, you need to take the Red’s Meadow/Devil’s Postpile shuttle bus, located in the parking lot of the Mammoth Mountain Ski Area. The shuttle bus is mandatory from 7am-7pm in the summer and early fall season, but opening and closing dates vary depending on snowfall. Outside of this time, you can drive your own vehicle down Red’s Meadow road and access the postpile and Rainbow Falls trailhead, provided that the road is open. I’ve both taken the shuttle bus and driven my own vehicle, but for the purpose of this article, we will focus on the shuttle bus, as that is what I did for my Rainbow Falls visit.

Cost:
The shuttle fee is $8/per person, round trip. Your National Park “America the Beautiful” pass will NOT work for the bus. If you’re arriving outside of shuttle bus season/hours, you can use your pass to access Red’s Meadow Road. If you do not have a pass, you’ll need to pay a fee at the booth.

We visited the Devil’s Postpile first. You can hike to Rainbow Falls right from the postpile, but it’s about a 5 mile round trip hike if you do it this way. We decided to knock off a little bit of hiking time by going back to the shuttle bus stop and catching the next bus. The buses come every 20 minutes, so depending on your timing, it may or may save you some time. We were trying to save our feet because we were wearing…. flip flops.

The Rainbow Falls Hike:
Before I go any further, we were under the impression that both Rainbow Falls and Devil’s Postpile didn’t involve long hikes, per the lady who sold us our shuttle tickets. We each only brought one bottle of water and we were wearing flip flops! Had we known we’d be doing some hiking, we would’ve worn appropriate footwear and brought more water. Devil’s Postpile is pretty short, but Rainbow Falls is a 3 mile round trip hike.

The Rainbow Falls trail is very dusty and seems to be never-ending. Combined with the fact that we were wearing flip flops, only had one bottle of water, up at 7000-8000 ft elevation and it was 85+ degrees out did not make us happy hikers. Plus, despite leaving Mammoth Mountain Ski Area in clear, sunny skies, the sky was clouding up with threatening weather looming.

The falls are pretty but you can’t always count on a rainbow. If it’s overcast, you won’t see it — and just our luck, it clouded up when we got there. There are a lot of people swimming in the water by the falls, so getting a people-free photo is difficult, if not impossible. You can hike down to the falls, but we just didn’t have the energy.

The hike back was much worse – it’s all uphill. You will get DIRTY on this hike from all the dust. We caught a return bus at Red’s Meadow Resort but you may be waiting for 2-3 buses until you can get a seat.

Time needed:
If you’re combining this with the Devil’s Postpile, I’d allow about 4 hours total. This is NOT a quick excursion. You have to account for not only the hiking time, but the time it takes to buy your tickets, wait for a bus, ride the bus, and then subsequently catch another bus to go back. Buses fill up quickly at Red’s Meadow!

Rainbow Falls Hike – Pros and Cons:
Pros:
The waterfall is beautiful
If you’re prepared, the hike is easy

Cons:
Combined with Devil’s Postpile, these two activities take up almost a 1/2 day during shuttle season. Many people do not realize this.
Trail is dusty
Lots of people playing in the waterfall, not easy to get people-free photos.
Shuttle buses are slow, crowded and hot