Our three person crew decided to venture down to the waterfall after a fun day of sledding, and we are so glad we did! The temperature the day we visited was around 15°F with the windchill being around 5°F. There were several inches of snow the night before, which also helped our journey down the stairs to the falls.
Hikers should be able to walk about 200 stairs in order to make it to the observation at the Falls!
The park does not remove snow on the stairs, or the path to the falls. When the temperatures are below freezing, there is a high risk of ice. To avoid falling on the ice, our crew decided on the sit and slide approach when we reached the staircases.
Luckily, several different hiker groups told us that it was easier going up than it was down, and that turned out to be true for our hike too. It was easier going up because our shoes had a toehold on the stairs. There was also a significant amount of snow on our hike, which helped provide grip over the ice.
We did see blood on some of the snow leading down the stairs, so it appears someone had an injury navigating. It definitely was a challenge in our weather conditions, but a partially frozen waterfall was absolutely stunning.