Darkness was setting in as I reached the final stop on the weekend’s adventure. I had not expected water levels on Otter Creek to be flowing quite so well at Baxter’s Hollow, but I frantically scrambled to get some photos before I was completely out of light. So after driving to the end of Stones Pocket Road and through the park, I back-tracked moving downstream and worked as quickly as I could. Here are some small rapids at the bridge furthest upstream from the southern entrance.
The creek straightens and runs for a few hundred yards with small rapids and rocks throughout. Banks of the creek are extremely slippery from the snow so I had to take care not to slide in and go for a swim.
At a small pull-out on the park drive you will find the single largest feature: a split rapids/falls that drops about 5 feet, maybe more. Here is the right-hand drop which is the most prominent.
Here’s a view of both left and right creek channels – hard to capture all the action in a single photo.
And here’s the left-hand drop which is more obscured but drops the same height, just over a slightly longer distance.
Turning to look downstream you can see the rapids continue along briskly.
Again the creek straightens out for another couple hundred yards until the next bend & subsequent bridge crossing.
At the bridge adjacent to a small parking area inside the park, the creek bends 90 degrees and you will find an uptick in rapids yet again. Even though these are small rapids, you can see the creek level drop visibly with your naked eye.
From that parking area there are some foot-worn trails, and just feet off the pavement you can look downstream a bit more to see more rapids/possible small falls (depending how you want to label them).
I did “hike” down to that first drop which is a small rapids. The creek is quite wide here by comparison and moving quickly.
Looking downstream there is no end in sight to all the rapids, however I am now out of daylight. No sense in exploring further if I can’t see anything, so the rest will have to wait until future trips. And unfortunately no video to share this time as the low light conditions took that away too.
One final goodbye as I call and end to the journey and head for home.
And once back at home I checked my odometer trip meter – nearly 860 miles in just about 3 days, what a whirlwind! Time to rest up and plan the next expedition!
