Adirondack Mountain Reserve Waterfalls

A place to discuss waterfalls. Including the parks that house them and the hikes to get to them.

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George
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If someone were to ask me where to go in the Adirondacks for a one-day waterfall hike, I would not hesitate to recommend the trails of the Adirondack Mountain Reserve in St. Huberts. The East River and West River trails that run along the Ausable River provide at least a half dozen beautiful falls, and you are near the Ausable River gorge the entire way. Many hikers miss these gems entirely by hiking the dirt road like an expressway to the high peaks, but if the peaks are socked in, the beauty is along the valley.

Here are some shots from my trek last week, about 10 miles that included the cliffs of Indian Head and return via Gill Brook.

First up is Pyramid Falls, off a side trail from the West River trail:
Pyramid Falls.jpg
Pyramid Falls.jpg (219.1 KiB) Viewed 5320 times
then on to Wedge Brook Falls:
Wedge Brook Falls.jpg
Wedge Brook Falls.jpg (206.45 KiB) Viewed 5320 times
and then to Beaver Meadow Falls for lunch:
Beaver Meadow Falls.jpg
Beaver Meadow Falls.jpg (195.87 KiB) Viewed 5319 times
About 4 1/2 hours in is Rainbow Falls. this is the one most folks see on their way up to Sawteeth, Gothics or Saddleback and Basin. If you plan to take photos of this one, be sure to bring a lens cloth, because it generates a lot of spray that will coat your lens. On a sunny day, it's what makes the perpetual rainbow. My best shot will need some work to touch up water droplets on the lens. It may actually be easier to hike back up and re-shoot it.
Rainbow Falls.jpg
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cbobcat49
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Nice! Rainbow Falls is my favorite of that hike.
What lies behind us and what lies ahead of us are tiny matters compared to what lives within us. ~Henry David Thoreau
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hobkyl
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Very nice....wish I could have found time to get to those while I was doing Colvin.
“There’s an inconsequentiality to our lives that living in the wilderness shows up. Mountain are real, they set their limits, they set ours. They expose us, make us vulnerable and strong at the same time. “
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Matt
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That rainbow falls shot is fantastic! Love the angle.
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One of my favorite hikes as well. The last couple times we did it, we went up to lost lookout on the way to Rainbow Falls, nice view of the lake from there.
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Finally got around to scanning some of the pics I have from this area.

Here's a waterfall on Wedge Brook that's a bit downstream from the main, "wedge" falls:

Image

Just up from that, there's the bridge, a small fall practically underneath it, and Wedge Falls itself. Apparently, I never got a good shot of the Wedge Falls, maybe sometime...

Image

Then there's Beaver Meadow, with a sign just so you know you're in the right place:

Image

Then up to Lost Lookout, where the small amount of effort is worth the view (click to enlarge):

[img2]http://img265.imageshack.us/img265/1016 ... romlos.jpg[/img2]

... and at the end of the trip, Rainbow Falls, which I still haven't gotten a good picture of yet, another time, I guess

Image

The main problem on that trip was that there was so much water, all the falls were running so fast we had a problem getting misted on whenever we stopped to take pictures. Beaver Meadow and especially Rainbow Falls were really wet.
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HaloGirl
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Some nice pics - especially like the 1st & 3rd.
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hobkyl
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Great pictures! Do you recall what season it was when you were there?
“There’s an inconsequentiality to our lives that living in the wilderness shows up. Mountain are real, they set their limits, they set ours. They expose us, make us vulnerable and strong at the same time. “
--Alison Wat




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