Southern VT- Starbrook Falls

Deep in the woods of Dummerston, VT there is a 60' horsetail, unknown to many who drive through the town. The falls are on private property, and I have been asked to not disclose their location, but the intrepid waterfall bagger can make arrangements to see the falls. Here are some of the pictures I took while there.

Southern NH- Falls Brook Falls

With not much to do on one of the nicest days in the past two weeks, we decided to try to find Falls Brook Falls in Troy, NH. I had seen an ancient-looking picture on the town of Troy's historical society, and it looked to be a decent enough drop of maybe 30 feet. With screenshots of the trail layout around the waterfall, we set out to go find them. We drove down the dirt portion of Richmond Road until we found a pulloff to park at. Continuing down the road, we passed an intersection, and soon came to some machinery. I looked at Google Maps (I wasn't expecting to still have service), and saw that there should be a trail off on the right to follow. I saw a faint path, and we took that. It was easy enough to follow at first, but soon we came to a mess of a brook crossing. A relatively small tributary of Falls Brook had flooded the entire road for about 50 feet. We found a somewhat dry way around it, but by the time we reached the other side, we were unable to find the trail. Peering over some trees from the adjacent clear cut, we decided it would at least be easier to walk in there. A bit later, we looked over more trees and saw a flat, wide road. Figures. Continuing down this road, we came to a large open space that looked like it had been camped on. The maps showed a trail leaving from around here but we were unable to find any trace of it. Bushwhacking down along the brook was hell. At times there were tricky crossings and thick hemlock groves. After maybe half an hour, we were sick of it and tried to cut back to the left to find the trail. After cutting through the thickest hemlock grove yet, we stumbled across a beer can. We had to be close to the trail now. In another couple minutes, we had successfully reached the trail. From here, we could see that the brook began to drop down a large ravine in an open forest, so we actually didn't even follow the trail. Cutting down to the brook, we saw a large zigzag of cascades, maybe 5-10 feet in height total. Pretty cool, but definitely not what I saw in the picture.

The upper cascades

We continued, passing two five foot drops. These were also rather nice, but still definitely not what we were looking for.

One of the larger cascades

 At the bottom of a following seven foot drop, we could see green leaves if we looked out horizontally, signifying a larger drop. We scrambled down the side of a drop, quickly reaching the bottom. It was around 40 feet tall, and consisted of a couple cascades, a large rectangular plunge, and a wide block cascade. At this point I was impressed with our find, but it was still not what was in the picture.

At this point, these were the biggest falls we had seen

Another 50 feet from the last drop, we stood and looked down the largest drop in the series. It had to be at least 50, if not 60 feet tall, and was all somewhat a continuous drop. By carefully picking my way to the bottom, I was able to see that this was the waterfall from the picture. The picture I had seen had definitely not done it any justice, as it was twice as tall as expected. While I have not been to every waterfall in southern New Hampshire, I'm willing to bet that this one of, if not the tallest drop,  both continuous and total, in the region.

The absolutely massive final drop

On our way back, we made it back to the trail. We soon started the uphill slog back to the car. Ugh. After a while, we came across caution tape that had been placed on trees along with private property signs. We hadn't seen any going in, and if we had we likely would've either found a way around it or turned around. If a reader of this post decides to go here, please do your best to not trespass.

Western Mass.- Allen Brook Falls

On an old, obscure UMass Amherst webpage, there is a section about Kenburn Orchards in Shelburne/Greenfield. This section of the page talks about the history of the orchards, as well as some of the other features of the property. One of these features is the gorge of Allen Brook. The Allen Brook gorge is among the deepest in the state. At the head of this gorge is a series of photogenic drops, probably totaling around 40-50 feet total. Allen Brook descends through the remnants of some old mill or something, turns left at a near-right angle, and drops through a narrow cascade/sluice. While maybe only 10 feet tall, this is a pretty cool set of falls.

The upper sluice of Allen Brook

Continuing downward, there is the next set of falls. These begin with a 7 foot fan, and then continue to drop down a set of attractive cascades.

The main falls

While the main drop here might not look too tall in the picture, it is around 25-30 feet tall. 

The best way to access these Allen Brook Falls is to park at Kenburn Orchard and then cut back to the corner of the tree farm closest to Route 2 and the brook. From here there should be an old road that is fairly easy to follow. Round trip is probably .4-.5 of a mile here.  

Western Mass.- Pierce Brook Falls

After visiting Fuller Brook Falls, we decided that we might as well visit another waterfall in Peru, the even more unknown Pierce Brook Falls. This is probably one of the most remote waterfalls in the state. Reaching it requires a mile bushwhack at the end of a long dirt road. From the intersection of Curtin Road and MA 143, we turned down Curtin Road, taking the next left onto Kreutzer Road. From there, we followed Kreutzer Road to its end. The map shows the road continuing on beyond its passable end, but the end is very clearly at a certain point. From the end of the road, we were skeptical about the property issue, as there is private property on either side of the road as it approaches its end. However, on the side of the road that the falls are on, the signs stopped where the others continued. If a reader of this blog decides to go here, and it is private property, please respect the landowners wishes. Anyways, we followed the road until it crossed Pierce Brook. This is a hard crossing to miss, as a beaver pond floods the road around here. We followed the brook downstream, which began as a pleasant experience, but soon we were dealing with significant blowdowns. To the average, healthy person, these would present a challenge of medium standing. However, after walking around on a healing sprained ankle, I decided to cross the brook to find easier walking. Pierce Brook isn't a very big brook, and it's very easy to cross, so this wasn't much of an issue. However, after getting to the other side and walking a bit, we saw even more blowdowns ahead. Crossing the brook again, we soon came to the beginning of the ravine of Pierce Brook. This is actually a pretty interesting ravine, as it appears that a tributary of Pierce Brook carved the main ravine, and the main brook falls down the side of it. The first few cascades are decent, 6-7 foot drops that are worthy of their own attention and a sign of what lies downstream. 



The first significant drop along Pierce Brook

From the uppermost drop, the walking got noticeably steeper, but the woods become more open. After passing the first drops, we came to the edge of a small, 10 foot gorge at the top of a rocky, tall drop consisting of about 35-40 feet of cascades. While it may not be the most interesting falls I've ever seen, it was worth the drive and bushwhack.

The small gorge above the main falls

The entirety of the main drop

The sprawling, cascading, rocky upper main drop



Western Mass.- Fuller Brook Falls

A while ago, while searching CalTopo for waterfalls that might not be noticed by most people yet, I made a discovery. Far upstream from where Fuller Brook enters the Westfield River, the brook dropped over a very tight set of contours. Interesting. Having wanted to check said place out, I conducted a quick Google search and found only a short YouTube video of the falls on a rainy day. However, the description said that they were 40 feet tall.

After visiting Devil's Den in nearby Williamsburg, we drove down MA 9 and then dropped south into the Worthington/Peru area from Windsor. We drove past the mediocre Falls in East Windsor, which isn't really a good destination unless you happen to be doing something in East Windsor (unlikely). Soon after crossing into Peru on MA 143, we turned down Strong Road, essentially an improved driveway. There is one house on the road, if you don't include the one the is about to fall down. After passing the house, there is a road closed sign, and a mound of dirt. If you have a high clearance vehicle, and you drive really slowly, you might just avoid bottoming out. Of course, this means driving past the road closed sign, which may or may not be okay with whoever put it there. If you are uncomfortable going over the mound (and thus down the closed road), parking here won't add too much more to the already short walk. Anyways, we drove down to the end of the drive-able road and parked here. I knew from maps that the falls would be just downstream from the road, so we continued down the road for a bit. We soon reached a spot that could be considered an intersection. There was a faint path on the left while the old road went right. Knowing that the falls would be on the left, we took a left. It was a mistake as the path faded away into nothing very quickly. We turned back onto the old road and followed it to the site of a former bridge. From here, we followed the brook downstream. We reached the top of the first drop and decided to cross. From the top of the ledge surrounding the falls, we could see that this was a fairly tall drop, and much more impressive than I had expected. By slowly picking our way down the right side of the falls, we made it to an awkward viewpoint immediately next to the ledge.

The awkward viewpoint

To obtain a better view of the whole thing, we continued downstream to the bottom of the lowest drop. The view was much better here, as there were several rocks in the middle of the brook that could be used.

The entire waterfall

The bottom falls here is shorter than the upper one, but has much more style. Strikingly similar to Trap Falls in Ashby, this drop is about 12-15 feet tall. It consists of three plunges about equal in height. The right plunge may be a bit shorter than the other two, another feature it shares with Trap Falls. We took some pictures real quick and then left, as the bugs were getting to be pretty annoying. On the way out, we noticed that there was a much simpler way to access the falls. Someone had constructed a "ladder staircase" up the side of the embankment. Where there wasn't a ladder, there were meticulously constructed rock steps. Whoever built these clearly cares a great deal about the falls. To reach these stairs, follow the old road to where it crosses the brook at the former bridge. Cross the brook somewhere in this area, and pick up the old road again on the other side. From here, follow the road until you reach a small clearing with a couple of log benches. Turn left and proceed down the staircase.

Western Mass.- Devil's Den

This past weekend, I made the trip out to Western Mass. via MA 9. It had been a few years since I had really been west of Northampton, so it would be nice to visit a part of the state that I rarely go to. The first stop was Devil's Den in Williamsburg. I'm surprised that this place isn't more well-known, as it's marked on several maps and a rather impressive place. We parked near the bridge over the West Branch of the Mill River on Old Goshen Road, and bushwhacked upstream. There is a trail network here, but it's confusing and overgrown in places. We followed the remnants of an old road up to the base of the long gorge. The first cool place we encountered was a large cliff that hung over the river . This looked like a rather enticing place to go swimming, as there was a large, sloping rock across the river from the cliff. 

The lowest point of Devil's Den

Above this, we crossed the river and continued up the gorge. The gorge continued to get deeper as we went further upstream, and it reached the point that it was hard to see the bottom from plant growth.

One of the deepest sections of the gorge

From there, we continued to the head of the gorge, which was probably the most fascinating part of the entire thing. The river divided into equal halves around a steep, rocky island, and cascaded down a 6 foot sluice on either side. While it was a bit of a scramble to get down to, it was very interesting to walk around on. The coolest part of the island was where the rock hung over the river massively, almost seeming impossible.

The cascade and overhang above it

Heading back on the opposite side of the river, we climbed up, across, and around cliffs. It was a lot taller on this (east) side. I don't have any pictures to show it, but it was definitely the best side to scramble around on, as the other side is much more of a steep hill than a cliff. 

While taking a look at the topography around this area, I saw that there is a decent sized waterfall upstream, however, it may be pretty difficult to access, as some land near the gorge is near a shooting range. It may be possible to get to these falls from a different approach, however, I was not aware of one while I was there.

Central Mass.- Temple Falls

On a particularly warm February day, I decided that I had some time to kill, and deemed it necessary to check the water flow of The Cascade in Worcester. The falls are usually nice, even with moderate flow and usually worth the 20 minute drive from home to go check them out. On this day, they were flowing great.

After visiting these, I was torn between checking out a couple places in Princeton I hadn't been to yet and checking out Muddy Brook in West Boylston. I opted to go to Muddy Brook, as it was less likely to be flowing in lower water conditions, and the recent snowmelt would surely be sufficient to put on a display. After initially driving by the pullover at the Boylston town line, I turned around and pulled off the road. I crossed 140 and headed up the old Hartwell Street. The old road ascends steeply and then enters an open forest. From here, I headed over a couple dirt piles and descended towards Muddy Brook. I immediately noticed a cascade at the head of the small ravine the brook had created. The brook split above the drop, and the right side fell over a muddy ledge, probably around 6 feet in total. After checking this area out, and discovering that this was the only cascade in the immediate area, I decided to head upstream further. I had checked maps and known previously that if there was a main drop to these falls, it would be here. After a particularly thick bushwhack under some high power lines, I came across the main attraction. Muddy Brook emerged from a culvert underneath the train tracks, and dropped down a horsetail around 4-5 feet in height (upon further inspection, I realized this drop is actually much taller, as it falls while in the culvert). After this, it bounces down, over muddy railroad ties, broken rock, and fallen trees. Finally, it enters a low angle chute for twenty feet and plunges the remainder of the drop. All in all, I'd say that the main drop here is around 50 feet tall, but it's certainly not continuous. Above the tracks, there is a small but not hugely impressive cascade that falls into the culvert.

Don't expect to go to these falls and get a good picture. There is an abundance of dead trees, thorns, awkward topography, and just about anything else that could get in the way. There are really only two portions that make for nice pictures, the lowest portion of the main falls, and the drop below the power lines. The easiest way to access these is also probably not from the lowest falls, either, but from following the old Hartwell Street further and then cutting down along the clear cut section adjacent to the power lines. All things considered, this site is not the most attractive I've seen, but the falls themselves are pretty cool.

I decided to name these falls Temple Falls after the road passing along the bottom of the hill they're on. I have no idea if there's a real name to them, but if there is, I'd love to know what it is.

The first drop I encountered

My attempt at capturing all of the main drop in one shot

The bottom of the main drop

The same part from the side

The lowest drop with the main drop in the background.