A Stunning Hike in Franconia Notch

Wednesday July 5, 2023                                        Most Recent Posts: 
Falling Waters                                              Writing in the Shadow of a Flood
Lincoln, New Hampshire           Inspired by Sally Mann: Days in Black and White

The hike I took up the Falling Waters trail  was so spectacular that I’m devoting an entire post to it.   I’ll catch up to real time in the next post or two.

I drove 37 miles into New Hampshire to Franconia Notch State Park to hike this rocky trail that was SO worth it.   Hope you feel like you’ve hiked it with me after reading this but without all the climbing.    There are several short videos to give you the magnificent sounds of these falling waters.

The Falling Waters trail is the red line at the bottom of the map running left to right.

The trail starts out encouragingly with a few rocks I can easily hike around.

And then a few more.

Lovely cascades along the side of the trail.         See the video here.  

The one and only bridge over the water.  Notice the rock slab on the far side.

View from the bridge.

On the other side.  The rock slab up closer.  Bigger rocks, yes the trail goes through here.

The last of the “easy parts”.

The river along side the trail was gorgeous all the way up.

The sun made this an impossible picture and the going was slow between the roots and the rocks.   This looks like a dry stream bed but it’s the trail.  In big rains I’m sure it is a stream.

Roots and rocks!

Now, how to get to the other side?

A closer look for planning.  Rocks are wet and slippery.  The water to the left is over my boot tops deep.  So no crossing there.

Standing on a rock in the middle.

Looking back from the middle  at the cool steps carved out of the rock.

I just walked down these.

View from the middle looking the other way.

Where I’m trying to get to.

The people following me also trying to figure it out.

This picture of these falls isn’t as nice as this short video of it.  

The rooty way up.

Another water to cross to a giant slab of slippery rock with nothing to hold on to.

Here’s the video of me standing on it after I got across with some folks following me.  

And the trail I found at the top of the rock face.

Looking down at the same water from the rocky trail.

Yes this is the trail too.   Can you even find it? 

The pictures of the rushing water do not do its beauty justice except perhaps in the videos.

Yes this is the trail too but the only way you can tell is thank heavens for the blue trail blaze.

My goal from a distance.

Worth the climb.

Here is a video of this final falls.  When it pans past my blue hiking pole, notice the rocks above and around the pole.  Those are the ones I climbed down and back up to and from the trail.    Major obstacles when you have very short legs.

What goes up, must come down through those same rocks and across those same slippery waters.

Almost at the bottom,  my proof that I did it up and back and it was worth the effort!

I didn’t have any trouble with my hips or my knees on the hike or after but boy were my thighs and calves sore the next day.    Would I do it again?  YOU BET!!