Ripley Falls is a 108-foot horsetail waterfall on Avalanche Brook in Crawford Notch State Park, New Hampshire, in the town of Hart's Location, Carroll County. A short trail from US 302 leads to it, and the Arethusa-Ripley Falls Trail links it with Arethusa Falls.
The falls
Avalanche Brook drops nearly vertically at first, then spreads into a concave slide down a 60-degree face of moss-covered granite, 20 to 30 feet wide. The World Waterfall Database, which surveyed the falls in person, measures 108 feet in a single drop; the state park's hiking map rounds it to 100. The brook drains about 2.1 square miles, with flow estimated around 10 cubic feet per second in the wetter months and 3 in the drier ones.
Getting there
The trailhead sits at the end of an access road off Route 302, one mile southeast of the Willey House, per the state park map. The Ethan Pond Trail climbs from there, and the Ripley Falls Trail branches left to reach the falls in about half a mile. AllTrails measures the walk at 1.1 miles round trip with 308 feet of gain. The route climbs moderately before leveling out.
When to go
The falls run all year but are best during snowmelt and after prolonged rain; later in the season the flow drops. At high water, spray can make photography difficult. March through October are the busiest months on the trail.
On site
The trail ends at the foot of the cascade, where the granite stays wet and mossy. Dogs are allowed on a leash.
History and name
White Mountains photographer and historian Erin Paul Donovan writes that Henry W. Ripley of North Conway and a companion named Porter explored the brook in September 1858 and called the lower fall Sylvan-Glade Cataract. In 1859 the writer Thomas Starr King proposed renaming it Ripley Falls in Ripley's honor, and renaming the stream, then Cow Brook, to Avalanche Brook. Some accounts credit the trapper Abel Crawford with finding it first.
Nearby
Sparkling Cascade, the upper fall named in 1858, is about 0.2 mile away on a tributary of Avalanche Brook. Arethusa Falls on Bemis Brook is about 1 mile away, and Kedron Flume on Kedron Brook about 1.1 miles.
Distances are straight-line.