Walker Cascade

Walker Cascade is a series of smooth rock sliding cascades along Walker Brook upstream from where it crosses the Falling Waters Trail in Franconia Notch State Park. No individual section of Walker Cascade appears to be more than 10 feet tall, however because the cascades do appear to stretch upstream for quite some distance, the stream does lose a considerable amount of elevation over their entire run. As we have not yet surveyed the entire length of the formation, exactly how tall the cascades are cannot be definitively identified. During our initial survey in 2015 we investigated the final 40-60 feet worth of slides, but didn’t continue further upstream due to time constraints. Based on one-meter resolution lidar data however, it appears possible that there could be as much as 150 vertical feet of drop over a run of approximately 1500 linear feet. It’s not clear whether this entire run of stream comprises of bedrock-based slides and cascades however, and if there are breaks in the makeup of the streambed, then chances are that the top of the cascades would be spotted at the break due to the overall shallow pitch of the formation. Walker Brook drains from a basin covering approximately 1.1 square miles, originating near the summits of Mounts Lincoln and Lafayette. Though the stream isn’t known to run dry at any time of the year, its small drainage area ensures that the volume of water flowing over the cascades will be considerably reduced in the summer outside of periods of heavy or persistent rainfall.