| Directions
North of Keene on NY 73, take a right on
route 40 (Alstead Hill Road). Look for Bartlett Road
on the right and then Clifford Falls Road on the left. |
| County: |
Essex |
| Town: |
Keene |
| USGS Map: |
Lake Placid |
| Waterway: |
Clifford Brook |
| Latitude: |
N 44.27678o |
| Longitude: |
W 73.82355o |
| Drop: |
10' |
| Type: |
Step |
| Region: |
Off US 73
between Lake Placid and Keene |
| Parking: |
Roadside |
| Trail type: |
NA |
| Length of hike: |
NA |
| Difficulty: |
Easy |
| Accessibility: |
Private |
|
As you approach the bridge over the Clifford Falls, there is a
parking area on your left. There is no need to cross the
bridge because the property surrounding this waterfall is private
and there are signs posted to that effect. You have nice
views of the falls from the bridge. The road on the other
side of the bridge is a dead-end.
This is pretty location. The brook is actually coming
down from two directions. Part of the rock is extruding to
form an island of sorts. Since this is private land and you
can only view the area from the bridge we have to draw some
assumptions. As you view the area upstream, the brook comes
down from the upper left over massive sheets of rock. The
brook flows down a natural waterslide on river right (your left)
and through an "S" curve. The water disappears
behind a rock and the water level above it is obviously higher
than the exit so we presume there is a plunge of some sorts
there. From the other side of the brook, there is
slide and the two parts converge into a pool. From there,
there is another "S", question mark sort of route, which
drops into another pool a very short distance from the
bridge. As you look down from the bridge on the upstream
side, you see the water plunge over a small free-fall of five or
six feet. There is a ledge there that almost looks like
there is a cave under it, at least an overhang.
The water disappears under the bridge and a few feet downstream
there is another cascade of five or six feet into a pool before
heading downstream. Again, because this is private land, we
were only able to get a picture of this final plunge from
above. There is a wooden ladder built into the side of the
embankment on the lower side. It would appear that the
owners access the area of the lower falls from that.
The Clifford Brook enters the East Branch of the Ausable River
1.8 miles, as the crow flies, from this locations. The east
and west branches join forces downstream at Au Sable Forks to form
the Ausable River. This waterfall rich river empties into
Lake Champlain in the town of Peru..
|
