After my small detour at the Brunsweiler River, I drove just a bit further up Spring Brook Road, parked at a tiny spot that only fits two vehicles, and made my way through the woods to find Spring Brook Falls.
Once upon a time there was a sign post at the trail head but the post has rotted away at the bottom and fallen down. No matter, this hike doesn’t seem to be a well-kept secret anyways.
Fall has…well, fallen…and the trail is obscured due to the leaves. It still wasn’t hard to find my way down, the path is well-traveled and it’s easy to hear the moving water.
The first falls in the series of four main features is a rock garden/island followed by a single 2-3 foot drop that splits around a large boulder.
Not far downstream is the second falls, a couple tiny one foot drops followed by what I’d estimate is a single 5-7 foot drop (but very hard to judge as it is obscured from a clear direct view on this western shore). The boulders here are huge and covered in moss making everything slippery.
A couple hundred yards downstream and we reach the third feature, a large drop of maybe 15 feet total. You can hear this one well before seeing it, and from the top it doesn’t look like much though you can tell it is quite large below.
Making your way carefully down the slippery trail you can scramble around for a more direct view. The majority of the water splashes down a central channel carved into the vertical rock face, with some extra spilling across the smoother section to the side. Water levels are low due to the season but in spring I bet this one becomes something much louder and violent.
Another view from further back/zoomed out. This one is best viewed from the shore I am on and would be hard to see from the other side due to that other huge rock on the left of this photo.
Here’s a view from clear downstream at the next falls looking back upstream. Notice this area is protected from access by the tall vertical rocky formations resembling a constructed channel.
It’s not far from the third falls to the fourth and final falls, maybe 100 yards or so. This is also the largest single drop of the bunch. From the top you can tell it’s a falls though it’s hard to see at this angle.
A quick scramble down the trail, you can get a clearer view. However, the water pool at the bottom widens out greatly so it is still an angled view. But from here you can see the main shape of the cascade as it spits through from between the huge rocks and has been fracturing the middle section for longer than likely humans have walked the earth.
Another few steps downstream and you can hop onto some rocks in the center of the water stream for the best direct views. This is probably a drop of 10-15 feet but the rocky cliff rises above it making it seem much larger.
And just feet off the brook there is a small make-shift fire ring that some previous explorers have built. From here the turbulence subsides meaning it’s time to reverse course. On the next leg of my journey I will explore the lower half of Spring Brook but I approached it from the bottom end instead. Think there is anything down there?
Long Exposure
I played for a while with long exposure shots but mostly failed as some stray sunrays poked through the tree canopy and caused aberrations. This one turned out half decent but I could have done better with more time. It is a very peaceful area and I could have spent all day and night here, but alas I had to keep moving.
Video
Here’s a video of my trek down the stream today. I think the video shows better than photos on this occasion as it is hard to show depth well in 2 dimensions.
Hiking Data
Here’s the path to find the falls. As stated earlier, just follow along Spring Brook and let your ears guide you.
The metrics confirm this isn’t an overly difficult hike with relation to distance or elevation. Total distance in-out is only 2/3 of a mile. Definitely check this one out!
Hi Adam, good post on Spring Brook… sorry about the low flow… was a bit better when I was there… your notes suggest you might take a longer look at lower Spring Brook… I still think there has to be falls on downstream (based on 250 foot drop in elevation before Spring Brook drops into the Burnsweiler River 2.6 miles downstream… that’s a 100 foot drop every 1/4 mile!)… when are you going back?
Regards, Bob
You should see more info on that section in my next post, stay tuned!