Sabbaday Falls

Sabbaday Falls can be found along the Kancamagus Highway (Route 112) approximately 6.4 miles east of Kancamagus Pass, or 3.3 miles west of the Bear Notch Road in Passaconaway. The trailhead is well signed and ample parking is provided. The trail to the falls is well graded (maybe even ADA accessible), and leads to the falls in about one-third of a mile.Though not terribly large, Sabbaday Falls is one of the most popular and most iconic waterfalls within the White Mountains region of New Hampshire. The falls occur along Sabbaday Brook where the stream drops down a narrow gorge carved in the granitic bedrock in three distinct steps; first a punchbowl type fall dropping 9 feet into a natural bowl that is likely the result of a pothole being carved into the bedrock and then eroded away on one side, the second drop then follows by plunging 19 feet over the side of the very rectangularly chiseled gorge, and then finally the third drop flumes another 10 feet over a step within the narrow gorge into a large emerald green pool below. Overlooking the falls is a fairly intricate and tastefully constructed set of catwalks, bridges, and viewpoints. Sabbaday Brook drains from a basin which covers an area of about 4.3 square miles upstream of the falls. Like most waterfalls in the White Mountains, there are no lakes feeding the stream, but the modest basin size and the comparatively high elevation of the slopes of Mount Tripyramid along the western edge of the drainage will ensure that adequate runoff is present at virtually any time of year. The stream flow should be expected to drop in the summer months, but it rarely seems to fall to levels which would make the falls unflattering or unworthy of a visit.Moses Sweetser originally named the falls Churches Falls in 1887 after famous painter Frederick Church, however the name never took. The current name stems from that of the stream, which itself was named when workers who were cutting a road from Conway to Waterville abandoned their work in the vicinity of the brook on a Sabbath day as winter approached.