Arethusa Falls, Livermore, NH

2 weekends ago (wow I'm behind on this blog) was my favorite weekend of the year; our annual gathering at Kevin's house for all things fall- called Squamtoberfest. Last year, I went up 2 days before anyone and destroyed my entire body by trying to hike Mount Chocorua as my first hike of the year. This year, even though I was very prepared for a ton of hiking, I only went up on Friday. Before going to Kevin's, I went somewhere I have never been but wanted to visit since discovering its existence earlier in the summer- Arethusa Falls, in Crawford Notch- widely considered the prettiest waterfall in NH. I had gone thinking it was the highest (and 200 feet), but through a little extra investigation tonight, apparently Dryad Falls is much higher, and Arethusa is anywhere between 120 feet and 176, with most sites listing it at 140. Or 160. I guess it's hard to measure a waterfall. Statistics aside, it's pretty gorgeous and awe-inspiring, and definitely worth a visit.

I started later than I wanted (WEIRD), but this time it was more the fault of Friday afternoon traffic through Conway than me leaving too late. I parked at the lower parking lot because I thought I had to (note: there is an upper parking lot- park there). The trail started out nice and moderate, with a sign shortly in saying that I had 2 options- take the Arethusa Falls trail to the falls (at about 1 mile) or turn left to take the Bemis Falls trail at (1.5 miles). The first just goes straight to the falls, the latter takes you to 2 other waterfalls, so for the extra half mile, it seemed silly to not take it.

Pretty quickly into the trail, I saw a sign for "Fawn Pool," which was real nice and probably a nice spot to jump in on a hot summer day.

This would probably create a decent slide with enough water

Swimming hole

Up a little ways from this spot was Bemis Falls, which was small and narrow, but pretty impressive. Once again, my iPhone took better pictures than my camera:

Then a little further up, I came to Coliseum Falls, which I didn't even realize was going to be part of the trip. This was a smaller 1-drop waterfall, but the rock around it was awesome:

I felt pretty lucky that I had come to see a big waterfall and had already seen 2 with barely any work. I was a fan of this trail. Immediately after Coliseum Falls though, was a huge incline out of nowhere. This is the section that takes you back to the Arethusa Falls trail, and, although it was straight up, obviously worth the extra work.  

This section will get your heart pumping

After the big incline, the trail meanders like any trail, going up here, going down there. It was very easy to follow, had steps when they were needed (even though they were enormous at times), and had signage wherever needed. Towards the end of it, I was wondering if this was actually a mile and a half or much, much farther. The time I had spent at the falls and the fading sun was playing tricks on me. Eventually, I came to a pretty nice bridge:

After this, the trail continued deeply left into the woods, and eventually downhill considerably. I could hear the waterfall, and I realized that the trail was taking me to the bottom of it. As soon as I could see it, it really kind of quietly blew me away from its size. 

 

To get an idea of the size, that tree that had fallen across the rocks was a little over chest high and much too hard to get over or under because of its size.

I hiked along the side of the river/rocks on some pretty sketchy stuff, then walked along the base of the waterfall, getting fairly wet from all of the splashing water. But it was more than worth it to stand at the base of this enormous waterfall and look up at gallons of water crashing towards me.

I was actually happy to be here, just looking tough/panting. Look at the rocket shooting off the top! (ok, it was a trail from a plane)

I sure love me some HDR iphoneography. 

Arethusa Falls is really a great spot, and I'd say it's a lot like Rattlesnake Mountain in Holderness, NH as one of those amazing spots where you have to work very little for some incredible scenery- Rattlesnake for a great view, Arethusa for the ability to stand at the bottom of one of the bigger and most beautiful waterfalls in New England. The only problem is that it took me a solid 2 hours to get there, and I would recommend anyone coming from Mass try to combine this with something else- maybe the Frankenstein Cliff loop here, or maybe with Crawford Mountain (which I had originally thought of trying to do on the same day) right down the road. Or maybe even just a visit to Conway- I certainly spent enough time sitting in traffic that I felt like I had gotten a full tour.

To get there- It's pretty easy- located right on Route 302 going through Crawford Notch, pretty much dead center of the White Mountains. It's about halfway between Attitash and Bretton Woods Ski Resorts. Park at the lot, walk across the railroad tracks, and the trail is to the left of the house right in front of you.