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Bingham Falls |
Location: Stowe, VT Access : A short walk to reach the stream. Some scrambling for the best views. Finding : Tricky. No signs. Legal : On private land. May be off-limits now.
Bingham Falls is located in Stowe just off Rt 108 about a half mile North of the Mt Mansfield auto road. There are no signs. There is a dirt turn off just before Rt 108 crosses a small bridge. From the turn off, there is an unmarked trail that goes down about a quarter mile to the falls.
The trail comes to the river above the falls. There the river flows in a narrow serpentine channel. It looks like you could almost jump across the gorge in a couple of places, yet the gorge is about 20 feet deep. There are lots of round potholes in the gorge that have been carved out by the water. However, it's difficult to actually see the stream. Of course, the ice and snow that was still around today made it tricky to get close to the edge of the gorge!
The trail becomes very rough and follows the river downstream a bit. You have to scramble down a steep embankment using your hands to hold onto roots and stones. The stream flows out of it's narrow gorge and over a very beautiful waterfall into a large circular pool. The main falls are about 15 to 20 feet. After a lot of scrambling, you can get to the rocks at the outlet of the pool where the view of the falls is excellent. You can feel the spray against your face.
Today I visited Bingham Falls again with my friend John. There was no ice around this time and that was good. There was also more people around.
I spent a little more time today checking out the narrow gorge above the main falls. Since I didn't have to worry as much about slipping to my doom I was able to get some better views of the stream as it wound it's way among the rocks. The very first gorge that the stream goes through is quite interesting because of all the potholes ground into the rock one right after another.
John and I scrambled down the embankment for a look at the main falls as well. It was even more impressive than I had remembered. Very nice falls with a beautiful pool. Picture [111k].
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