Smith Falls and Snake River Falls are the best known, but the Niobrara River Valley has many more. At Fort Niobrara National Wildlife Refuge near Valentine, a hiking trail leads to Fort Falls, hidden in a secluded canyon. Also on the refuge is a two-tiered waterfall known as Stinard Falls. Downstream from Smith Falls, just below Fritz’s Island, Stairstep Falls is just what its name indicates. Snake River Falls is just north of Merritt Reservoir.

As it turns out, Nebraska has many more waterfalls than anyone realized. In 2004, a National Parks Service-sponsored study cataloged the waterfalls of the Niobrara. Leonard Mason, a graduate student at the University of Nebraska at Lincoln, found more than 180 falls along a 20-mile stretch of the valley. Th at was about twice as many as expected.

Anything more than a few feet high counted. Th e Niobrara falls are unique because of their convex faces, meaning that they bulge outward, which the opposite of what waterfalls usually do. Apparently this is because most of the falls are spring-fed and active year-round, preventing freeze-thaw action from
eroding their faces. Also, the faces are apparently protected by minerals from seeping groundwater and by the growth of algae, diatoms and lichens.