Chasm Brook Falls –

I’ve been visiting Acadia National Park for over 30 years and have lived close by for the last two and in all my visits I have never seen water in chasm brook. That experience changed recently.

I have been biking the carriage roads in Acadia National Park for many years. One of my favorite loops is the ‘Around the Mountain’ carriage trail, which goes directly over Chasm Bridge and Chasm Brook. I had ridden over this bridge at least a dozen times and had never seen water in the brook. After receiving lots of rain late during the week of December 13th, I decided to take my chances and see if there might be water flow in chasm brook.

Acadia National Park does not allow biking the miles of carriage trails in the winter, so my only option was to hike in. Grabbing some photography gear, a snack, some water, and warm clothes, I headed for the Giant Slide trail head on routes 3 and 198. The trail head is between Somesville and Northeast Harbor on the left side of the road. Parking is on the right. I hiked to the first carriage road and crossed over to continue. Not long after, the trail enters a gorge that probably does not have much water flow normally. Today the brook was in full flow and lots of ice on the boulders along the edges of the brook. It was completely spectacular and highly recommended, although it may be a bit underwhelming if there is no flow.

The trail finally intersects with the ‘around the mountain’ carriage trail. Here I turned left and walked about a mile until the road takes a hard left. Straight ahead and down a ravine in chasm brook. Although I could have followed the road for another .6 mile, it was shorter to follow the brook and I was up for exploring.

The water flow didn’t disappoint. I hung around for a while scouting spots and taking photographs. I jumped a large white tailed buck while on my way back. Great destination and great hike!