Waterfalls in New Hampshire

New Hampshire's notches, where granite brooks turn into waterfalls

Magma rising under New England between 124 and 100 million years ago left the White Mountains built on hard granite, and the glaciers that later carved Crawford, Franconia and Pinkham Notches into deep, U-shaped valleys gave every brook draining those walls a ledge or headwall to drop from. New Hampshire counts 264 named waterfalls, and 83 percent of them sit in the three counties that share those mountains.

Where the waterfalls are

Grafton County has the most listings, 96, spread across Franconia Notch, Kinsman Notch and the roadless Pemigewasset Wilderness. Coos County follows with 79, taking in Pinkham Notch below Mount Washington and the North Country around Colebrook and Berlin. Carroll County adds 43 more across Crawford Notch, the eastern Kancamagus Highway, North Conway and Jackson.

South of the mountains, falls are smaller and farther apart: Hillsborough County (15) and Cheshire County (13) hold brook drops and old mill gorges, while Merrimack (7), Strafford (5), Sullivan (4) and Belknap (2) Counties round out the state with a handful each.

Waterfalls worth the trip

• Arethusa Falls, at 155 feet, is the tallest single-drop waterfall in New Hampshire, though some cascades run higher overall. A day hike of about 2.8 miles round trip climbs from US 302 in Crawford Notch, rocky and steep at the start.
• Ripley Falls, 108 feet down a mossy granite slide nearby, is an easier mile-long round trip, while Silver Cascade, 540 feet in tiers up the valley wall, needs no hike at all: pullouts on US 302 look straight at it.
• Avalanche Falls, 35 feet at the head of Flume Gorge in Franconia Notch, sits at the end of a 2-mile boardwalk loop through the granite chasm; the ticketed attraction runs seasonally and bans dogs.
• Georgiana Falls, 112 feet in three drops on Harvard Brook near Lincoln, is a day hike that passes under I-93 before climbing about 800 feet of gain.
• Crystal Cascade, 141 feet over six tiers fed by Mount Washington's snowpack, and Glen Ellis Falls, a 64-foot plunge on the Ellis River, are both short walks from parking on NH 16 at Pinkham Notch.
• Champney Falls, 117 feet in six tiered steps, is a day hike of about 3 miles round trip off the Kancamagus Highway, with three unbridged stream crossings.
• Diana's Baths, 75 feet spread over eight ledges and pools on Lucy Brook, is an easy walk from West Side Road near North Conway and a popular summer wading spot.
• Beaver Brook Falls, 112 feet in three tiers on the edge of Colebrook, is a short, easy walk from roadside parking on NH 145 in the North Country.

When to go

Snowmelt gives most of these falls their fullest flow in spring, though Georgiana and Beaver Brook Falls, fed partly by ponds and bogs upstream, run more evenly year-round. Flume Gorge's boardwalks go up for the season on a fixed schedule, open May 8 through October 25 in 2026; outside that window the gorge itself is closed to hikers. Crawford Notch keeps the Arethusa Falls parking lot plowed through winter, but without restrooms or other facilities.

Fees, permits and closures

New Hampshire State Parks charged $4 per adult and $2 per youth (ages 6–11) at standard day-use areas in 2026, rising to $5 and $2 at "high-use" parks; children 5 and under and New Hampshire residents 65 and older get in free. Flume Gorge charges separately: $18 per adult and $16 per child (6–12) online, $21 and $19 at the gate, with timed-entry reservations recommended since they can sell out; dogs are not allowed inside. On White Mountain National Forest land, an annual pass ($30 individual, $40 household) covers the sites that charge, including the trailheads for Champney Falls, Crystal Cascade, Glen Ellis Falls and Diana's Baths, where a day pass is about $5. In the village of Jackson, roadside parking near Jackson Falls is limited to two hours, and three marked spaces are reserved for property owners and long-term renters, with a $50 fine for others who use them.

Safety

Several of these falls have hurt hikers in the past two years. A hiker fractured an ankle about a mile up the Arethusa Falls Trail in August 2025 and needed a litter evacuation. On the Georgiana Falls Trail, a hiker slipped on wet rock and injured a leg badly enough to require rescue in July 2026. At Glen Ellis Falls, a 17-year-old cliff jumper landed on rocks and was seriously hurt in July 2026; swimming there is against the rules. Diana's Baths draws swimmers to its lower pools, but wading above the topmost falls is prohibited near the town's water intake. Wet granite is the common thread at every one of these sites: stay back from the lip, and treat any ledge above a drop as unstable footing.