waterfalls – David Kotz

Grindelwald – Schwarzwaldalp

A gentle hike from Gross Scheidegg down to Schwarzwaldalp.

On our final day in Grindelwald, we chose a milder hike. It began with a bus ride up the steep and winding road to a mountain pass, Gross Scheidegg – the taller (eastern) counterpart to Kleine Scheidegg on the western side of Grindelwald. Here we stumbled into a local community festival, which appeared to be an amateur wrestling contest! We stopped to watch for a while, then ambled up the road and along the trail to take us down the other side of the pass. Our goal was the tiny village of Schwarzwaldalp, which we understood to be the site of a historic, water-powered sawmill. Read on!

A community wrestling competition at Gross Scheidegg.

Grant Brook cascades

A return to an old favorite.

It’s becoming a pattern – a visit to Georgiana Falls two weeks ago, then Beaver Brook cascades last week, and now a return to my favorite Lyme cascades, along Grant Brook. Although I arrived perhaps a week or two late for the best foliage, the falls were still spectacular. A heavy rain yesterday brought the stream up to full force, and the surrounding forest still had plenty of yellow and orange to lend color to the scene.

Cascades and waterfalls along Grant Brook in Lyme, NH.

I first encountered these cascades four years ago when I traversed the entire watercourse of Grant Brook from the Connecticut River up to the summit of Smarts Mountain, and returned a year later to snap an award-winning photograph. So today I hoped I might find similarly good conditions. I parked beside the brook and worked my way upstream, capturing each set of cascades and trying to push my ability to think through composition, exposure, and depth of field.

Beaver Brook cascades

An incredible photographic journey.

After my visit to Georgiana Falls last week, I realized the tremendous photographic potential of this season. I determined to visit another appealing waterfall this weekend, and selected Beaver Brook cascades. This impressively long sequence of cascades is visible for nearly a kilometer along the Appalachian Trail as it ascends the north side of Mount Moosilauke, the trail often hugging the cascades so closely that the trail is cut into the New Hampshire granite and studded with wooden blocks to enable footing along the water-slickened rock. Read on for a glimpse of one cascade, and visit the gallery for the complete set of full-res photos!

Steep and slippery along the Beaver Brook Trail, Mount Moosilauke, NH.

Gorge Brook and the Pleiades

One of my favorite hidden gems of Mount Moosilauke.

One of my fondest memories of hiking on Mount Moosilauke was a solo bushwhack in August 1984, when I decided to follow Gorge Brook to its source, and beyond. The Gorge Brook Trail follows the brook for a mile or so, then diverges east to attain the ridge and climb over East Peak to the summit. But the brook itself contains one of the hidden gems of Moosilauke: the Pleiades, a series of spectacular cascades that few ever have a chance to see. Although I mentioned this memorable bushwhack in a post from 2013, I had never returned to the Pleiades… until today. And what a day for it! Read on and be sure to check out the photo/video gallery.