Grafton Notch State Park

BETA PHOTO: Pic says it all

Description 

This park has 700+ foot composite granite rock cliff separated by narrow tree ledges on its west side, called the Eyebrow. This cliff is very close to the road. Get to it by hiking the Appalachian Trail to a cut off trail called the Eyebrow trail. Where the Eyebrow trail heads up left go right instead to the base of the cliff. In the middle of this cliff is a deep dike before the large rock wall that goes up the entire distance of this cliff. The top half of the dike is very rotten but looking up from the ground, it appears reasonably solid and easy to climb. Don't do it, the top half is very rotten! This cliff is extremely steep and without any memorable features besides the dike. The further north you go the 400+ cliff section appears to be solid granite. Above it is a second shorter even steeper tier. on the east side of the Notch are slabs and a steeper cliff called Table Rock, because of the look out point on the A.T. I went to the top of the slabs south of Table Rock, and bushwhacked uphill north to meet up with the Appalachian Trail. I haven't been to this area since 1982. I remember there being no natural trad. pro. sections to these east side slabs. These slabs other than Table Rock are similar to Webster Mt.-Crawford Notch N.H. slabs or with few to no arches. To protect these slabs would require a dozen bolts or so, at least. Much of the rock is coarse. It has white and brown rock diagonal bands (possibly Basalt)and some gray,(Whitehorse Mt. N.H. in likeness) smooth slab sections also. Southeast of these slabs deep in the woods is another continuous slab 300+ feat, without tree ledges. I haven't been there. Besides bushwhacking in Maine is serious, if you get lost and become disoriented you can stay lost forever (having a compass could be life saving).
The Notch is beautiful and also offers a variety of winter ice climbing. 80+ feat of hollow thin ice on the west side and thick (WI3,3+) 40+ feat of ice on the east side of the Notch. The thick stuff is practically on the road and has lots of ways up it. The hollow ice section has no pro and is steeper. This section may get thicker depending on yearly conditions. google images has excellent images of the Eyebrow. View of Table Rock is at outdoors.mainetoday.com/.../014991.html. view of the slabs and Table Rock is at www.mountainspringfarm.com

Getting There 

Google Map Quest or buy a map of Maine. It is Northeast of Bethel, Maine on 26. Bethel Maine is 30-40 miles East of Gorham N.H. The walk to the Eyebrow cliffs wasn't long, less than 1 mile from road's parking lot I believe.

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