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Albany · US

Lower Falls Recreation Site

Lower Falls is the single most popular stop on New Hampshire's Kancamagus Scenic Byway, and it earns the title. Here the Swift River gathers itself and drops many feet over broad, smooth granite ledges into a wide pool, surrounded by tall hemlocks, white pines and yellow birches in the White Mountain National Forest. The result is a scene that works as a swimming hole in July, a picnic spot in September and a foliage-and-waterfall photograph at almost any clear day between mid-May and mid-October. What makes the site more than just a roadside view is its easy access and the comfortable infrastructure wrapped around the falls: an 80-car lot, picnic tables with charcoal grills, a riverside trail network, and a restored 1936 Civilian Conservation Corps pavilion capped by a boardwalk and open overlook platform right at the edge of the lower pool. You can walk from the parking area to a front-and-center vantage of the cascade in just a few minutes.