AMC Outdoors, January/February 2007
They curtain the rock in icy veils, the frozen chandeliers of the Northeast’s greatest winter waterfalls. Hundreds of falls tumble throughout the region, but these seven stand out for their particular drama during the coldest season, when summer spray transforms into crystal sculpture and roaring cascades freeze in silence. Most are readily accessed in only a short walk from the trailhead.
Screw Augur Falls
Grafton Notch, Me.
Twenty-five thousand years ago, a massive ice sheet funneled through a narrow gap in the mountains of western Maine. The topography compressed the ice into a tongue of crushing power, which gouged bedrock to create the deep cleft of today’s Grafton Notch. As the ice receded, coarse floodwaters carved potholes and overhanging lips into the gorge of Screw Augur Falls, which slices deeply through solid granite outcrops. In winter the falls’ two frozen tiers twinkle, and veneers of ice highlight texture in the glacial-scoured walls. Access the falls from Route 26.
Distance: 0.2 mile round-trip
Info: White Mountain Guide, Map 6 (AMC Books), Waterfalls of the White Mountains (Backcountry)
Sabbaday Falls
Waterville, N.H.
The Fool Killer feeds the headwaters of Sabbaday Brook, which tears down the mountain’s flanks to meet the Swift River and Kancamagus Highway in New Hampshire’s southern White Mountains. The trackless summit is as difficult to access as it sounds, but the waterfall it nourishes can be reached in a few moments along the Sabbaday Brook Trail. Icy plunges and pools highlight the falls as they chute through a narrow chasm and over a 25-foot face of broken stone. The path is broad, gentle, and easy to follow from the signed roadside parking area.
Distance: 0.6 mile round-trip
Info: White Mountain Guide, Map 2 (AMC Books), Waterfalls of the White Mountains (Backcountry)
Arethusa Falls
White Mountain National Forest
Taller seasonal falls may exist elsewhere, but none is as mighty as Arethusa. The champion of White Mountain waterfalls, it plummets farther in one continuous drop than any other in New Hampshire. The falls dance 150 feet down a ledgy cliff, its tinkling spray freezing each winter into an alluring wall of sculpted ice. Ice climbers are drawn to its challenge and are often seen clawing their way up the glittering facade. Access is via the moderately challenging Arethusa Falls Trail in Crawford Notch State Park.
Distance: 2.6 miles round-trip
Info: 603-374-2272, White Mountain Guide, Map 3 (AMC Books)
Moss Glen Falls
Granville, Vt.
Locals claim that the coldest temperatures in Vermont occur along a sinuous stretch of Route 100 in the heart of the Green Mountains. Near the bottom of this deep valley, Deer Hollow Brook rushes out of the hills toward the Mad River, tumbling over 45-foot-high Moss Glen Falls in a broad horsetail of hissing spray. But the stream’s haste is no match for the frigid temps, which congeal its falls into a cathedral of fluted ice. Fair-weather tourists stop by the roadside falls in throngs, but few witness it in full arctic glory.
Distance: 0.1 mile round-trip
Info: Green Mountain National Forest, 802-388-4362, New England Waterfalls (Countryman Press)
Race Brook Falls
Sheffield, Mass.
Race Brook Falls showers off the eastern escarpment of the Taconic Highlands, an unusual high-elevation plateau in southwest Massachusetts. The underlying geology is unique; a cap of erosion-resistant schist lies atop softer marble, which wears away when exposed to leave near-vertical cliffs and slopes behind. Multi-tiered Race Brook Falls drops a combined 300 feet, freezing into a popular ice climbing locale in the winter. Access is from Route 41 along the Race Brook Trail; watchful hikers will spot marble boulders as they climb.
Distance: 2.2 miles round-trip
Info: Massachusetts Trail Guide (AMC Books), www.nature.org/wherewework/northamerica/states/berkshire/
Chapman Falls
East Haddam, Conn.
According to legend, Satan himself used to walk along the Eight Mile River in
south-central Connecticut. But the Dark Lord evidently doesn’t like to get his tail wet. When it happened here one day, he stomped his hoofs in rage atop the river’s largest waterfall, leaving deep imprints in the bedrock of today’s Chapman Falls. Tumbling through duly-named Devil’s Hopyard State Park, the waterfall is one of the state’s most powerful, though winter’s chill slows it down for icy enjoyment.
Distance: 0.2 mile round-trip
Info: 860-873-8566, Nature Walks in Connecticut (AMC Books), New England Waterfalls (Countryman Press)
Plattekill Falls
West Saugerties, N.Y.
Plattekill Clove is one of only two breaks in the Catskill Escarpment, which rises abruptly from the Hudson River Valley to form the eastern front of the Catskill Mountains. A narrow unplowed road climbs up the deep ravine, rising 1,200 feet in 1.4 miles to reach Plattekill Falls, a series of plunging cascades up to 60 feet high. Winter access is from the west via Route 16, which leads to the Platte Clove Preserve entrance and trailhead.
Distance: 0.4 mile round-trip
Info: 845-586-2611, www.catskillcenter.org/vhikes/hikes.html, Catskill Mountain Guide, Map 1 (AMC Books)
Contributors
Robert Buchsbaum, author, AMC’s Best Day Hikes in the White Moutains; Lou Jacobs; Simon Kozin; Greg Parsons, author, New England Waterfalls; Brian Phillips; Charles Smith
- Matt Heid is senior editor at AMC Outdoors.
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