Beaver Brook Falls Wayside
NH Route 145
Colebrook, NH
A wide, roughly eighty-foot ribbon of water that fans down a granite face just steps from the road, in the quiet far-north corner of the state most travelers never reach.
Beaver Brook Falls is the kind of waterfall that would draw crowds if it were anywhere near a city. Roughly eighty feet tall, it spreads wide across an angled granite face and fans down in a shining sheet just a short walk from a roadside pull-off on Route 145 north of Colebrook. The state maintains it as a wayside, with a shaded picnic area set almost at the foot of the falls.
What makes it a hidden gem is precisely where it is: the Great North Woods, the sparsely settled top of New Hampshire that most visitors drive right past on their way to the White Mountains. Up here the towns are small, the forest runs unbroken toward Quebec, and a waterfall this lovely comes with no admission, no crowds, and often no one else in the picnic area at all.
What Guests Love
- A genuinely tall, graceful waterfall you can reach in a two-minute walk from the car
- A shaded roadside picnic area right at the base of the falls
- The deep-country quiet of the Great North Woods, far from the tourist notches
- Catching it in full spring flow, when the whole granite face runs white
Worth Knowing
- This is a roadside wayside, not a big park; the appeal is the ease and the setting
- Rocks near the falls are slick, so keep to the viewing and picnic areas
- Spring snowmelt is the most dramatic time; late summer can slow the flow
- Colebrook is the last real stop for fuel and food this far north, so plan accordingly
Details
Colebrook, NH
Learn about Beaver Brook Falls Wayside
The falls
Beaver Brook drops over a broad shelf of granite in a fan-shaped cascade that the state estimates at around eighty feet. Because the rock face is angled rather than sheer, the water slides and skips down it in a wide veil rather than plunging in a single column, which gives the falls their delicate, spreading look.
A short path from the parking area leads to the base, where a stone-and-timber picnic setting invites you to linger. The volume changes dramatically with the season: in spring, fed by snowmelt off the surrounding hills, the whole face runs loud and white; by late summer in a dry year it can thin to a quieter trickle.
The Great North Woods
Colebrook and its neighbors sit in Coos County, the northernmost and least populated part of New Hampshire, a landscape of working forest, moose bogs, and the young Connecticut River near its headwaters. This is timber and outdoor-recreation country, threaded by snowmobile trails in winter and quiet back roads in summer.
For travelers, the reward of coming this far is the sense of genuine remoteness. Moose sightings are common along the roads at dawn and dusk, the night sky is dark enough for real stargazing, and small towns like Colebrook still feel like the self-reliant north-country communities they have always been.
Making a trip of it
Because it is so easy to reach, Beaver Brook Falls works beautifully as a stop on a longer drive through the North Country rather than a destination in itself. Route 145 between Colebrook and Pittsburg is a scenic run, and the falls make a natural place to stretch, picnic, and take in the north woods.
Farther up, the chain of Connecticut Lakes in Pittsburg leads to the very source of the Connecticut River at the Canadian border, some of the wildest country in the Northeast and a natural extension of a trip that begins at the falls.
Closest Boutels
The closest Boutel™ stays, so you can turn this stop into an overnight. Each is an independently owned, editorially selected place to stay.
Profile Motel & Cottages
Honorable Mention391 Styles Bridges Highway, Lincoln, NH
56 miles away|Learn More ›
Things to Do Near Colebrook
Colebrook
About 3 miles, a 5 minute drive
The small commercial center of the far North Country, with fuel, food, and the Shrine of Our Lady of Grace just south of town.
Fourth Connecticut Lake Trail
About 35 miles, a 50 minute drive
A rugged hike in Pittsburg to the tiny bog pond that is the ultimate source of the Connecticut River, right on the Canadian border.
Dixville Notch
About 12 miles, a 20 minute drive
A narrow, dramatic mountain notch and the tiny precinct famous for casting the first midnight votes of presidential elections.