Waterfalls in Connecticut

Small drops and marble ledges, Connecticut's waterfalls

Marble and gneiss ridges rise into the Litchfield Hills in Connecticut's northwest corner, and the brooks off them make the state's tallest, steepest falls; farther south and east, smaller streams cut through basalt ridges and glacial till from the last ice sheet. The state counts 79 named waterfalls, concentrated most heavily in that northwest hill country and thinning toward the eastern uplands and the shoreline.

Where the waterfalls are

The Northwest Hills Planning Region holds the largest share, around Kent, Cornwall and Canaan, where marble and gneiss give the steepest drops in the state. East of there, the Capitol Planning Region around Hartford and the Naugatuck Valley Planning Region add falls on brooks crossing central Connecticut's traprock ridges.

Along the lower Connecticut River, the Lower Connecticut River Valley Planning Region has falls cut into the old rift-valley basalt and sandstone, including the Eightmile River watershed. The Western Connecticut Planning Region and South Central Connecticut Planning Region hold smaller falls closer to the coast, and the Southeastern Connecticut Planning Region takes in the Yantic and Quinebaug river falls around Norwich. Falls thin out toward the Northeastern Connecticut Planning Region and the Greater Bridgeport Planning Region, each with only a couple of named drops.

Waterfalls worth the trip

• Kent Falls, 209 feet down a staircase of tiered drops on Kent Falls Brook, is the tallest and best-known waterfall in the state; a stepped trail climbs beside it for 0.84 mile round trip, though the state park's own materials still describe about 250 feet overall.
• Enders Falls drops 121 feet in six tiered steps on Enders Brook, reached by a half-mile loop with stone steps in Enders State Forest.
• Great Falls, a 50-foot horsetail where the Housatonic River spreads wide over a rock ledge at Falls Village, is a short walk from parking; a dam upstream diverts most of the flow to a hydroelectric station much of the year.
• Chapman Falls steps 40 feet down tiered schist ledges pocked with potholes in Devil's Hopyard State Park, a short walk from the lot.
• Yantic Falls drops 40 feet through a narrow gorge in Norwich, at the city's Uncas Leap Heritage Park, a flat, roughly one-mile round trip from downtown.
• Roaring Brook Falls is a 50-foot horsetail on West Mountain in Cheshire, at the end of a steep, rocky 1.8-mile round trip; most published accounts still give its older figure of 80 feet.
• Wadsworth Falls, a 20-foot curtain on the Coginchaug River, and its taller, narrower neighbor Wadsworth Little Falls at 45 feet share Wadsworth Falls State Park, a short walk apart.

When to go

Spring carries the strongest flow: Kent Falls and Wadsworth Falls run heaviest with snowmelt or rain, and Great Falls, held back by an upstream dam most of the year, peaks in late winter and early spring releases. Smaller brook falls such as Wadsworth Little Falls and Blackledge Falls need recent rain to run at all and often thin to a trickle by summer. Boardwalks at Enders Falls turn slick when wet or icy, and Indian Well Falls sits in a park closed to vehicle traffic from November through March, walk-in only.

Fees, passes and posted rules

Connecticut-registered vehicles park free at every state park and forest in 2026 under the Passport to the Parks program, funded by a surcharge on vehicle registrations since 2017. Out-of-state vehicles pay $10 on weekdays and $15 on weekends and holidays from April 1 through October 31 at parks that charge, or $112 for a non-resident season pass; Enders State Forest and Devil's Hopyard State Park charge no parking fee at all. Great Falls sits on land owned by the utility FirstLight, open to the public but privately managed for hydroelectric power. Codfish Falls is on private land where visitors have long been tolerated, but the conservation group holding an easement there does not encourage visits, and posted rules should be followed.

Safety

Kent Falls and Wadsworth Falls both ban swimming, and ask visitors to stay on the trails and off the ledges. Hikers have been hurt on the steep ground at Roaring Brook Falls: a 20-year-old fell about 15 feet in 2014, and the Cheshire Fire Department made two rescues of injured hikers there in 2024. Near Great Falls, four visitors were rescued in 2009 after one fell about 40 feet close to the ledge, and legislative testimony describes a serious fall at Enders Falls in 2017. Glastonbury bans ice climbing at Blackledge Falls.