Goodrich Rock and the Cascades of Waterville Valley

Trip Details
Date: June 29^th, 2018
Total Distance: 10.42 mi (via Garmin fenix 5X)
Total Time: 3 hours 17 minutes
Total Elevation: 1801 ft gained
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Due to other responsibilities BishopX and I got started in the early afternoon (1300) instead of the early morning start we typically get. We decided to take advantage of the hot and humid weather and return to the Waterville Valley cascades that we passed by four years prior when I finished my first round of the 48. This also gave us a chance to climb up to Goodrich Rock, which finds itself on the Terrifying Twenty-Five list.

The plan after summiting Goodrich Rock was to then make our way back to Livermore Trail and then head to the Cascades Trail to swim in the waterfalls. AMC's White Mountain Guide Online, for the first time in my many years of utilizing the service, sent us on a wild goose chase. Sadly, AMC has decided to halt the service and retire it. This deeply saddens me as the maps and guides that it has printed out have helped out tremendously and are second to only a good GPS system with built in maps. I remembered seeing that there quite a bit of abandoned trails in the wake of Hurricane/Tropical Storm Irene in the Greeley Ponds Trail area. This map in particular was a faded memory. Clear as day is the fact that the Scaur Trail was decommissioned. The White Mountain Online Guide allowed me to select it so we planned to utilize that to go from Greeley Ponds Trail back to Livermore Trail while also checking out the view from The Scaur. We never made it to The Scaur and instead had to make an audible and do a lot of running/jogging to get to the Cascades within our tight schedule.

We eventually made it, and got to swim in the cold waters that actually were quite nice once your body adjusted. It felt quite refreshing with the thick humidity we were hiking in.

• These trails are built for speeds. The ground is well groomed and you really do not get to anything that resembles a White Mountain trail until you break off onto one of the side trails. Both Livermore and Greeley Ponds trails are excellently maintained. 
• The way to Goodrich Rock brings you past some crazy boulders. I did not expect to see anything like this. It was pretty interesting to see all the glacial erratics in the area including the Goodrich Rock, which is one of the largest in New Hampshire.
• As we tried to find the Scaur Trail we started by taking a left at the end of the Goodrich Rock Trail as we had not passed any trails on the way to that trail. Once we passed the Irene re-route and started gaining some elevation we knew we were off so we turned around and ran to what looked like the only other "trail" south of the Goodrich Rock Trail junction. There was no sign, so we kept going. Looking at the maps on my Garmin we were just getting too close to the Livermore Trail junction and the only thing we were seeing was the large section of Irene re-route on this section of the Greeley Ponds Trail. So we went back to that "trail" and took the few steps to the Mad River. It was flowing good for a rather dry time we have had so far. There was no evidence of a trail on the other side of the river so we scrapped this idea. I zoomed in closer on my map on the Garmin and saw that it said the Scaur Trail was abandoned (a map at the Livermore Trail junction would further confirm this). 
• We still had a few hours (even with all that back and forth on the Greeley Ponds Trail) so we decided to just make our way on the easy Livermore Trail over to the Cascades Trail. Then we saw the Boulder Path and saw that it would get us to the Cascades Trail faster. So we jumped on that and eventually over to the Swazeytown cross country ski trail that brought us to the Cascades Trail. We hustled up and down this trail until we got close to the Norway Rapids. From there we hooked a right and were on the final stretch to the waterfalls. 
• The middle waterfall that has two levels has the good swimming holes, but the last waterfall that we did not explore much (or take photos of) looks like it would work well for swimming too. Cliff jumping definitely looked doable off these two waterfalls but we did not try it.
• The water was cold, but refreshing. I even did a little short waterslide down the rock into the larger pool of the lower waterfall.
• The Snow Mountain service road took us to the summit of the Snow Mountain ski area. We hugged the right side and jumped on the Elephant Rock Trail that took us back to the Cascades Trail that we followed to the Snow Mountain parking lot.

Below are some photos from the hike:

Livermore Trail parking. Fee site.

Look at that nicely groomed Livermore Trail. It is practically screaming at you to start running!

Had we only looked at that map closer...

The trail cuts right through the split boulder.

Part of Goodrich Rock from the base.

The 20 foot ladder, which is what qualifies it for the Terrifying Twenty-Five.

The edge...

Mt. Tecumseh

Waterville Valley Ski Resort

Sandwich Dome and Jennings Peak

Looking down the ladder.

Here is the only other "trail" (dead center) that leads you to the Mad River that you could maybe cross and then do some bushwhacking for a bit to make your way to the abandoned Scaur Trail.

The path gets its name after this boulder, which was right at the start.

The trail crosses Cascade Brook, which you had to just suck it up and get your feet wet. It felt good.

Swazeytown was easy to follow, but a bit muddier than Livermore or Greeley Ponds Trails.

Follow the yellow sign and stay to the right for the Cascades.

This is the first waterfall you come to. You could swim here, but it is not very deep.

This is the lower pool on the middle/second waterfall. This is designed for swimming and it looks like the cliff in the background is prime for jumping. We did not have time to explore. I did waterslide down the falls on the right though. Quite fun for a short ride.

Here is the upper falls of the middle/second waterfall. There is a another deep pool and you can swim to the rocks behind the falls and climb up.

Snow Mountain chair lift.

At this point we just assumed we would follow the ski trail down. So we hugged the dirt path to the right.

Then we found this sign and decided to head down the Elephant Rock Trail. We passed a big rock at one point. Maybe it was Elephant Rock. It just looked like a rock (the tree that made the trunk is no longer present so that explains it).

The GPS got wonky near the Swazeytown/Cascade Trail junction. It recorded some large zigzags. Not sure why there the GPS got weak, but it was find elsewhere on the trail.