Since then, wooden stairs, boardwalks and overlooks have been put in to make the trek through the gorge even easier and more pleasant. The gorge was discovered in 1808 by a 93-year-old woman known as "Aunt" Jessie Guernsey who stumbled upon the natural wonder while out fishing- it took her awhile to convince friends and family that the magical place she was describing was real and worth investigating, but once word got out about the gorge, people were convinced. Inside, it's secuded- just you, the bubbling creek, and the verdant green plants. Over thousands of years, Flume Brook wore the winding gorge into the solid granite that now forms the walls. If you can only do one thing, definitely check out Flume Gorge. Take a page from his book (pun intended) and explore Franconia Notch and all of its breathtaking beauty! Even famed writer and naturalist Henry David Thoreau spent time here. Go if you have never seen a gorge with water flowing through it, if you must.Franconia Notch State Park has been attracting visitors for well over 200 years, long before it was made into a park. There are so many other fabulous hikes in New England that are free, if I had my time over I’d save my $21 per person. There is a visitors center with a decent cafeteria and some trinkets on sale. Additionally, the flume gorge is less than one third of the way around the track so they could very easily have not bothered with all the other signposted features. All in all though, the other signposted features and the length of the track make it look as though they’ve padded out the hike so they can charge the $21 admission fee. The gorge has quite a bit of water flowing through it and numerous falls and rapids over maybe a 100 metre length.Īs well as the gorge, the track takes you past other signed features such as another smaller set of falls and gorge, a pool, boulders moved by glaciers. The hike takes you past the Flume Gorge, which is spectacular if you’ve never seen anything like that before but ho-hum if you are a seasoned bushwalker in Australia (as we are), where we run into these sorts of things often. The track is up and down all the time, so be prepared for the hills. This involves a 2 mile hike on undulating, made track (wide and mostly surfaced with compacted stones). It took our group about an hour and a half.Īlong the path, there are restrooms and rain shelters. The pamphlet they give you says it takes about an hour and 15 minutes to walk it. There are a few picnic tables spread out within the gorge and outside the visitor's center and in the parking lot. The visitor center was not air conditioned, so not much relief from the heat. Others in our group, used their arm strength to push them up and through, but that way resulted in a scratched leg. If you want to try to squeeze through, I recommend turning with your back to the rock, slide up until you can sit on it, and pull yourself up. The sign says it is a small space, it is a really, small space and you aren't just sliding through it, you are actually climbing up it. I'd say those over 150lbs or taller than 5'8" may not be able to get through. The gorge was about 8 degrees cooler than the shaded areas on the trail.īesides the flume, be sure to take a few minutes to see table rock, the pond, and (if you are able) go into the wolf den. Basic tennis shoes or hiking boots work for this trail and we recommend going when temperatures are around 70 to avoid the heat. The loop is 2 miles and probably longer than necessary to see everything, but longer justifies the cost I guess. The flume is beautiful and it is cool inside the gorge.
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