Flume Gorge, New Hampshire

The Flume Gorge
Franconia Notch State Park, NH
(603) 745-8391
flumegorge.com
Click on any or all pictures to enlarge.

We visited the Flume Gorge with our friends this past weekend.  The entire walking path from the visitor center around and back is 2 miles.  The information is gathered from the brochure the welcome center gives you upon admission.  These are the pictures we took.

Built in 1886, crosses Pemigewasset River.  Pemigewasset means "swift" or "rapid current" in the Abenaki Indian language.

Table Rock is a section of Conway granite 500 feet long and 75 feet wide.

Nearly 200 million years ago in Jurassic times, the Conway granite that forms the walls of the Flume was deeply buried molten rock.

As it cooled, the granite was broken by closely spaced vertical fractures which lay nearly parallel in a northeasterly direction.

Sometime after the fractures were formed, small dikes of basalt were forced up along the fractures.

The basalt came from deep within the earth as a fluid material, and bacause of pressure, was able to force the Conway granite aside.  The basalt crystallized quickly against the relatively cold granite.

Because of this quick cooling, the basalt is a fine-grained rock.  Had this material ever reached the surface, it would have become lava flows.

Erosion gradually lowered the earth's surface and exposed the dikes.  As the overlying rock was worn away, pressure was relieved and horizontal cracks developed, allowing water to get into the rock layers.

On the walls of the Gorge small trees are growing.

Climbing higher and higher up the Gorge

The basalt dikes eroded faster than the surrounding Conway granite, creating a deepening valley where the gorge is now.

Getting closer...

Heading to the top of the Flume

Notice the Tree w/the horizontal trunk, at top of wall

The Falls were formed during the great storm of 1883

At the top of the Flume is Avalanche Falls.  A 45-foot waterfall