Very occasionally the river level will be high enough to flow over the central section of rock; the last recorded time this happened was in December 2015 after Storm Desmond.

The southern bank can be reached free of charge via the Pennine Way public footpath which crosses the Moor House-Upper Teesdale National Nature Reserve.

High Force was formed where the River Tees crosses the Whin Sill – a hard layer of igneous rock (also seen at Hadrian's Wall and other locations).

The upper band is made up of whinstone, or dolerite, a hard igneous rock which the waterfall takes a lot of time to erode.

[7] Arthur Young came with his wife on horseback from Durham in 1771 and made the following comment:[8] The whole river (no trifling one) divided by one rock into two vast torrents pours down a perpendicular precipice of near fourscore feet: The deluging force of the water throws up such a foam and misty rain, that the sun never shines without a large and brilliant rainbow appearing... After preaching at Cuthberton and in Teesdale, I went a little out of my way, to see one of the wonders of nature.