Wharton, Cumberland County
45N26.855 64W25.159
20T E389010 N5033652.
RIVER: North Branch Diligent River
CLASS: plunge
SIZE: 20'
RATING: excellent (****)
TRAIL: improved trails
DISTANCE: 3.5km
HIKING TIME: 1.5 hours
CONDITIONS: moderate
Geocache: GCW5P4
NS Atlas Page: 37/W2
NS topo map: 21H08 (Parrsboro)
photo Sylvia Fisher
DRIVING DIRECTIONS: from Parrsboro, drive west along HWY209 7.1km to Smith Hollow Road (at 45N25.107 64W25.666) about 100m past the second bridge you cross coming out from Parrsboro. Pull up this road to the cleared area about 350m along and park.
TRAIL DESCRIPTION: follow the maintained trails 3.5km upstream to these falls. The trail was made and is maintained by CE Harrison & Sons Building Supplies in Parrsboro in memory of the founder of their company, C. Ernest Harrison. The trail is wide and fairly level, with only some steep sections as you near the falls.
photo Phil Wilkinson
The falls emerge from a narrow canyon carved in the fault precipice which has all the appearances of a closed cavern. You can get into this gorge by climbing the ladder next to the falls. If the ladder is not in place (it wasnt in the summer of 2011) there are ropes in place to assist climbing to the top of the falls and entering the canyon. The usual caveat about ropes you didnt place yourself applies here.
photo Kris Griffon
You can traverse the canyon a good 200m to where the brook tumbles in again from above. The trail also leads to a viewing area above the falls with a spectacular view of the canyon.
photos Benoit Lalonde
A blast from my past! Thanks for posting these pictures. Brought back nice memories of my childhood.
ReplyDeleteAbsolutely incorrect directions. Smith's Hollow Road is approx 7km prior to the road for Ward's Falls. Ended up following directions via Smith's Hollow Road above and hiking over 10km return in the hunt for non-existent falls. Drove 7km down the road to the proper location after speaking with loggers in the woods who thought we were absolutely crazy city folk for hiking in so far on a skidoo trail. Once we did get to the falls and made the scary climb, the falls turned out to be the best we've experienced outside those in the Caribbean.
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