The Best Walk

One of the largest waterfalls in the New England…

Last Saturday my two sons, Brian and Mark, hiked up Mount Sally in Jackman. From there we drove to The Forks where we would walk to Moxie Falls and swim in the pools at the bottom. As mentioned in the previous post, walking up Sally Mountain was great. So was Moxie Falls - here’s why…

We had read that Moxie Falls is one of the largest waterfalls in the New England area. It stands at over 90 feet and is located in beautiful wooded area. Around the falls is a network of trails to other nice areas. The walk from the parking area is short, but long enough to enjoy it. On the approach to the falls there are strategically located wooded decks to allow the best views.

There we swimmers above and below the falls. Swimming above the falls didn’t appeal to us for obvious reasons, but we definitely wanted to go for a swim. To enter the water below the falls we needed to climb down a steep hill. We walked down a narrow trail then we used a tree roots for stairs to a boulder. We had to carefully maneuver down the rock to avoid going into a slide. Next we used rocks as stairs to the bottom. After removing our shirts, shoes, and socks it was time for a swim.

For the most part the pool was shallow and there was a strong current particularly in the center. A swim to the middle took you quickly downstream about 30 feet. And, it was fun! The closer we went to bottom of the falls, the stronger the currents were. This was quite a swim! It was both refreshing, interesting, and fun. The pool was loaded with rocks of all shapes and sizes. This took a little getting used to - it was pretty easy to bump into a rock. After a while we we completely comfortable with the pool and we took turns letting the stream carry us. Hey - you don’t get to do this every day!

As we put our clothes back on we looked up at the climb. We saw that not far from the boulder we came down on there was a weaving set of tree roots - similar to what we saw near the top. We simply used the roots as stairs and went to the path at the top. From there we took another look at the falls and snapped a few more photos.

The walk back to the parking lot completed Saturday’s walking. Saturday night we sat around a campfire. The next day we would board a raft and travel down the Kennebec River. My son’s and I were having a great time.

Filed under: Maine on August 16th, 2007by Hank