Arethusa Falls is a

waterfall A waterfall is a point in a river or stream where water flows over a vertical drop or a series of steep drops. Waterfalls also occur where meltwater drops over the edge of a tabular iceberg or ice shelf. Waterfalls can be formed in several wa ...

in the White Mountains of

New Hampshire New Hampshire is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the northeastern United States. It is bordered by Massachusetts to the south, Vermont to the west, Maine and the Gulf of Maine to the east, and the Canadian province of Quebec t ...

in the United States. The waterfall occurs when the headwaters of Bemis Brook tumble over a

granite Granite () is a coarse-grained (phaneritic) intrusive igneous rock composed mostly of quartz, alkali feldspar, and plagioclase. It forms from magma with a high content of silica and alkali metal oxides that slowly cools and solidifies undergro ...

cliff on the western slope of Crawford Notch. Arethusa holds the distinction of being the tallest single-drop waterfall in

; some high-angle cascades surpass it in height, such as the

Mahoosuc Range The Mahoosuc Range, a northern extension of the White Mountains, straddles the border between New Hampshire and Maine. The range's highest peak, Old Speck Mountain, is the fourth-highest peak in Maine. Substantial parts of the range are publicly ...

's seasonal

Dryad Falls A dryad (; el, Δρυάδες, ''sing''.: ) is a tree nymph or tree spirit in Greek mythology. ''Drys'' (δρῦς) signifies "oak" in Greek, and dryads were originally considered the nymphs of oak trees specifically, but the term has evolved to ...

. Arethusa Falls was discovered by Edward Tuckerman in 1875. It was named after the

nymph A nymph ( grc, νύμφη, nýmphē, el, script=Latn, nímfi, label=Modern Greek; , ) in ancient Greek folklore is a minor female nature deity. Different from Greek goddesses, nymphs are generally regarded as personifications of nature, are ty ...

Arethusa, daughter of Nereus. At the time, the falls were measured to be tall, but the Appalachian Mountain Club now estimates the height at . The falls are located within

Crawford Notch State Park Crawford Notch State Park is located on U.S. Highway 302, in northern New Hampshire, between Bretton Woods and Bartlett. The park occupies the center of Crawford Notch, a major pass through the White Mountains. The park includes the Willey H ...

and are accessible by means of the Arethusa Falls Trail from

U.S. Route 302 U.S. Route 302 (US 302) is an east–west spur of U.S. Route 2 in northern New England in the United States. It currently runs from Montpelier, Vermont, beginning at US 2, to Portland, Maine, at U.S. Route 1. It passes through the states of Verm ...

References

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External links

Crawford Notch State Park Hiking Information
including map and trail description to Arethusa Falls Waterfalls of New Hampshire White Mountains (New Hampshire) Landforms of Carroll County, New Hampshire Protected areas of Carroll County, New Hampshire White Mountain National Forest