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Butternut Bend Falls |
I found the location of these falls from some information on the 'net. I describe what I found there. However, shortly after posting this information Dean Goss wrote to me saying, "[The falls] are supposed to be about 400 feet west of the New York state line." Thus the location described here might be incorrect.
Overview: Rapids, not falls Location: Pawlet, VT Stream : Mettawee River Height : 5 feet? Finding : Easy Access : Roadside Swimming: No Basking : No. Shaded area Privacy : None. Houses close to the location Legal : Private land. View falls from road
From Pawlet
Starting at the center of Pawlet at the junction of routes 30 and 133, drive north on route 30 for about 2 miles, past the intersection with Waite Hill Road on the right, to the intersection with River Road on the left.
Follow River Road for a bit more than a mile until you reach the junction with route 153. Turn left at the junction and continue a few feet to the brige over theMettawee River. There is a parking area large enough for a couple of cars just before the bridge. The falls are below and under the bridge.
My original information on these falls was sent to me by Dean Goss in the mid 1990s. That information described them as a "25 foot drop on the Mettawee River." The location I describe above is the exact location of the falls according to ... However, what I discovered at that location was extremely minimal. The Mettawee River flows over nothing more than a rocky outcrop into a large, open pool. The total drop is definitely less than ten feet and might be closer to five feet. These falls are little more than a short section of rapids.
It is possible that my previous information on these falls was actually describing the nearby Button Falls. It is also possible that the location information I followed is inaccurate.
My wife and I visited these falls for the first time today. It was raining steadily. That, together with the snow melt, caused the river to be quite high. My wife suggested that perhaps the falls would be more interesting in lower water; under the conditions we saw what little drop they had was almost completely buried in the heavy flow.
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