Mother Walker Falls is a 55-foot series of cascades on the Bear River in Grafton Notch State Park, Oxford County, Maine, where the river works its way down through a gorge choked with huge boulders beside Route 26. A roadside sign and parking area mark the gorge, but the falls themselves are hard to see.
The falls
Steep tiered cascades run among large boulders, about 5 feet wide on average. The World Waterfall Database measures the falls at 55 feet: lidar shows the river drops roughly 100 feet through the whole gorge, but only about 55 of that is the waterfall. Older measurements put it at 98 feet. The gorge runs about 980 feet along the river, cut into the floor of a valley carved into a U shape by glaciers.
Getting there
The parking area is on the right side of Route 26 heading north through the park, 1.1 miles past Screw Auger Falls. The walk to the gorge is 0.2 mile round trip and easy. Grafton Notch day use costs $4 for nonresident adults and $3 for Maine residents, paid at self-service fee stations; children 5 to 11 pay $1 and those under 5 are free. The park season runs May 15 to October 15, with hours from 9 a.m. to sunset.
When to go
Late spring, when the winter snow is mostly but not entirely melted, is the recommended season. In autumn the gorge has yellow foliage and moss-covered rock, as photographer Jamie Malcolm-Brown's pictures show.
On site
The main falls have no developed access and drop away from the road, so there is no easy way to view them. A 3- to 4-foot drop in a boulder cave just behind the parking area has been mistaken for the falls in at least one guidebook. Pets must be leashed and attended, children supervised, and there is no drinking water in the park.
History and name
The falls are named for a long-time local resident.
Nearby
Jail Falls is about 0.7 mile away and Screw Auger Falls about 1.1 miles, both on the Bear River. Paine Creek Falls is about 0.8 mile away, and Step Falls on Wight Brook about 2.8 miles.
Distances are straight-line.