Cataracts, The

The Cataracts are accessed from Andover Road, approximately 2.6 miles east of the parking area for Dunn Falls and the Appalachian Trail near Dunn Notch, or 5.5 miles west from the 4-way intersection where Routes 5 and 120 meet in the town of Andover (Andover Road branches opposite of Route 120 at this junction). The parking area is found a short distance up Cataracts Road at the aforementioned mileage. The trail leads about a quarter mile to where the lowermost falls can be heard, but scrambling off trail a short distance is required to obtain a good view. The second falls is visible right from the trail after climbing up a short but steep hill, and the final two falls follow shortly after - total distance from the trailhead is about half of a mile.The Cataracts are a series of four sequential waterfalls in close succession to one another along Frye Brook southwest of Dunn Notch. The falls occur over a linear run of the brook of about 700 feet, each separated enough that no two tiers can be viewed together (this is typically grounds for sequestering each fall as its own entry in this database, but the precedent for considering these falls all one series has long been established). From the top down, the falls are laid out as follows: the upper tier is a slightly veiling horsetail which falls about 25 feet into a pothole, then tumbles another few feet over a ledge below to a broader pool below. The second tier, located about 200 feet downstream, is a sliding cascade which drops about 15-20 feet over a series of smaller steps. The third tier, found another 200 feet downstream, is the largest of the series, dropping 50 feet down a steep chute and plunging into a narrow section of canyon. The fourth and final fall is found another 150 feet further along the stream, and just around the corner from the canyon below the third falls. Here the creek plunges 12 feet into a narrows between two vertical cliff faces, below which the creek pools and makes a sharp bend around the smaller cliff face. Frye Brook has a drainage basin which covers approximately 4-1/2 square miles of land. Other than one or two small areas of marsh or bog higher up in the basin, there is not known to be any standing water feeding into the creek. Though the stream does seem to retain a modest streamflow for much of the year, it will be considerably reduced in volume during the summer months without sustained periods of precipitation. In the spring and late autumn months when rainfall or snowmelt is consistent, the volume of the creek can swell to considerable levels.While the collective The Cataracts is the officially recognized name of this set of falls, each of the three larger individual falls has also been given its own name; the upper fall is known as The Flume, the second fall is The Churn, and the largest fall in the gorge is The Cataract (singular). We've also seen the name The Churn attributed to the final 12-foot fall in the series as well, in which case it isn't clear what or whether the second fall has a nickname.