Screw Auger Falls
Jun. 27th, 2021 06:28 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
canyonwalkerMaine Week Travelog #28
Grafton Notch State Park, ME - Sunday, 20 Jun 2021, 11:40am.
"Screw Auger Falls". That sounds like a condemnation, not a place name. But it's actually a nice little waterfalls in Grafton Notch State Park in western Maine.
![Screw Auger Falls, Grafton Notch State Park, Maine [Jun 2021]](https://ic.pics.livejournal.com/canyonwalker/33413618/745290/745290_original.jpg "Screw Auger Falls, Grafton Notch State Park, Maine [Jun 2021]")
Screw Auger Falls in Grafton Notch State Park, MaineThe name, I presume, comes from a screw auger, a type of drill, which it looks like might have been used to carve narrow gorges through the hard granite bedrock. Actually that work was done by nature some 12,000 years ago. A melting glacier just north of this notch sent huge amounts of water down the river, water rich with sand, gravel, and small rocks. The swift water and high sediment acted like a water drill to carve out the narrow canyon— er, notch, as they're fond of calling canyons in this part of the country.
We weren't even planning on hiking this falls today but instead saving it for tomorrow. It's a short trek close to hotel we could do before heading down to the airport. On the other hand, it's a short trek and it's right here— literally on the way from our previous hike, Step Falls, to the one we plan to do next, Dunn Falls. So why not stop?
From the parking lot it's barely even a walk to the start of the action. We walked out across the broad granite flats above the falls then across a bridge to the far side. From that side were perches right on the lip of the canyon from which you could see down into it. Alas the view of the falls from there was poor.
Next we climbed down steep rocks on the far side of the canyon to the river below the falls. There was no official trail there but a few obvious use paths, now called "social trails" in the 21st century, showed where people before us had gone. At the bottom of the canyon there was no view back up into it, so we crossed the river again— this time picking a narrow spot and hopping across on rocks— and searched for a steep path up again.
The easiest route up was a steep gully that led off to the side, bringing us up to the road alongside the park. The distances were all close so we followed the road for a bit then cut back through the trees once the ground was fairly level.
Back at the lip of the gorge I found a rocky perch from which there was a great photo spot. Hawk and I took turns taking pictures there then walked back along the marked trail to the parking lot.
Grafton Notch State Park, ME - Sunday, 20 Jun 2021, 11:40am.
"Screw Auger Falls". That sounds like a condemnation, not a place name. But it's actually a nice little waterfalls in Grafton Notch State Park in western Maine.
Screw Auger Falls in Grafton Notch State Park, Maine
We weren't even planning on hiking this falls today but instead saving it for tomorrow. It's a short trek close to hotel we could do before heading down to the airport. On the other hand, it's a short trek and it's right here— literally on the way from our previous hike, Step Falls, to the one we plan to do next, Dunn Falls. So why not stop?
From the parking lot it's barely even a walk to the start of the action. We walked out across the broad granite flats above the falls then across a bridge to the far side. From that side were perches right on the lip of the canyon from which you could see down into it. Alas the view of the falls from there was poor.
Next we climbed down steep rocks on the far side of the canyon to the river below the falls. There was no official trail there but a few obvious use paths, now called "social trails" in the 21st century, showed where people before us had gone. At the bottom of the canyon there was no view back up into it, so we crossed the river again— this time picking a narrow spot and hopping across on rocks— and searched for a steep path up again.
The easiest route up was a steep gully that led off to the side, bringing us up to the road alongside the park. The distances were all close so we followed the road for a bit then cut back through the trees once the ground was fairly level.
Back at the lip of the gorge I found a rocky perch from which there was a great photo spot. Hawk and I took turns taking pictures there then walked back along the marked trail to the parking lot.
