Buttermilk Falls is a 10-foot cascade on the West Branch Pleasant River in Gulf Hagas, the gorge in Piscataquis County, Maine, often dubbed the Grand Canyon of Maine. It sits about midway along the Gulf's Rim Trail, a blue-blazed loop off the Appalachian Trail, between the Jaws and Billings Falls.
The falls
A single drop of about 10 feet, based on lidar, described as a steep veiling cascade; earlier surveys listed 15 feet, the figure American Whitewater still uses. The river falls 400 feet over the 4 miles of the Gulf, and a short side trail gives a view of the falls and their pool.
Getting there
Gulf Hagas lies on Appalachian Trail corridor land owned by the National Park Service and managed by the Maine Appalachian Trail Club together with KI Jo-Mary, Inc. Visitors pay a day-use fee at the Katahdin Iron Works checkpoint (approached from Brownville Junction) or the Hedgehog checkpoint (from Greenville): $18 per person, or $13 for Maine residents, with those under 18 and 70 and older free. Checkpoints take only cash or checks and are staffed 6 a.m. to 9 p.m. The access roads are unpaved logging roads where trucks have the right-of-way.
From the West Branch Pleasant River parking area, the trail fords the river for about 150 feet in knee- to thigh-deep water, then joins the Appalachian Trail. The Buttermilk Falls side trail is 2.8 miles past that junction on the Rim Trail, about 3.2 miles one way from the car. When the river is high, the Hay Brook parking area avoids the ford but adds 0.3 mile each way.
When to go
The trails are busiest on weekends between 9 a.m. and 4 p.m., with the heaviest use in August and September. The checkpoint fee season runs May through October.
On site
The Rim Trail involves considerable rugged climbing and people have been lost, hurt or exhausted; sturdy boots, not sandals, are expected. Families with young children are encouraged to stop at Screw Auger Falls instead. Cell service is very unreliable. Dogs must be leashed, and camping and fires are not allowed in the Gulf.
Nearby
The rest of the Gulf's falls line the same trail. The Jaws are about 0.5 mile downstream, Billings Falls and Stair Falls about 0.7 mile upstream near the Head of the Gulf, and Screw Auger Falls on Gulf Hagas Brook about 1.2 miles away.
Distances are straight-line.