Devils Postpile to Rainbow Falls Trail Mammoth Lakes California Devils Post Pile National Monument

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If you’re exploring Mammoth Lakes in the summer and only have time to do one hike it might be to see Devils Postpile and Rainbow Falls. Here you get to hike along the middle fork of the San Joaquin river see two of the best attractions in Mammoth Lakes.

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To reach the trailhead you need to jump on the 395 and drive through the town of Mammoth Lakes. If you’re listening to this in the future and public transportation is a thing again you’ll catch a shuttle at the Mammoth Mountain Adventure Center and take it down to the trailhead.

During COVID times and during the offseason they let us drive right to the trailhead. You drive right past Minaret Vista, a stop you should definitely hit closer to sunrise or sunset. Then almost immediately you enter the Devil's Postpile National Monument. You head down the windy postpile road until you reach the valley. From here you’re looking for the Ranger Station or stop 6 on the shuttle map. This is where the trailhead starts. There are two parking lots here the first one is for backpackers and the second is larger for day hikers.

Remember this is bear country so there are a few bear bins close to the Ranger Station. Also if you have kids and they are interested in becoming a Jr ranger head over for a booklet and you can earn some cool swag. The rangers here were super helpful and answered a lot of questions. But more on that later.

Jumping on the trail you head south along the San Joaquin River to Devils Postpile. This .4 mile stretch of trail is extremely well-trafficked and very flat. It quickly leads you to this amazing natural wonder. The honeycomb pattern of Devils Postpile is one of nature's strongest designs and just amazing to see up close and personal. How does this even happen? right?

Molten lava and glacial ice shaped these unusual rock columns. Basaltic lava more than 400 feet deep filled this narrow valley nearly 100,000 years ago. As the lava cooled, cracks formed on the surface to release built-up tension these cracks formed into hexagons which is one of nature's most efficient and stable shapes. During the last ice age about 20,000 years ago, a glacier-carved, shined and exposed this cliff for us all to enjoy.

I highly recommend hiking to the top of this natural wonder but it is the most elevation gain of the entire hike. From here you can really see the glacier shined hexagonal tiles of Devils Postpile. Hiking down from here you can see how massive the lava pool was as you head down the trail to Rainbow Falls you can see a bunch of areas with more postpiles. This is something truly unique and something that I’ve just never seen before. If you don’t go to the top you still have a decent hill to climb just past the main postpiles.

From here the trail to Rainbow Falls is another 2.4 miles along the middle fork of the San Joaquin River. The water of the San Joaquin travels from here all the way to San Francisco Bay. So be sure to practice and leave no trace principles by packing out trash and leaving rocks and other things you find where they are.

You cross a few streams along the way with some well-maintained crossings. You enter a burn area from the 1992 rainbow fire. This was filmed in 2020 so you can really get a feel for how long it takes for forests like this to grow back. The fire was started from a lightning strike and From here you can also get a great look at Mammoth Mountain if you haven’t seen my list of best things to do in Mammoth check out that video in the link above or in the description.

As you approach Rainbow Falls you can hear it before you see it. As you crest a small hill you can see the top of the falls. DO NOT swim upstream of the falls. Every year I hear about people swimming above the falls to cool off and it not ending well...

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