Lonesome Lake outflow falls
— — the lake giving its water back to the notch.
Not only on a wall.
“Where Lonesome Lake spills off its glacial bench, the outlet brook drops in a series of small cascades through hemlock and yellow birch toward the Pemigewasset River, far below. The Cascade Brook Trail is the southern half of the loop down from Lonesome Lake Hut, joining the Appalachian Trail near Whitehouse Bridge. The falls themselves are not a single drop but a long staircase of water over polished granite, loudest in late April when the snow off Cannon Mountain comes through, quieter by August. — from the studio
Lonesome Lake outflow falls, on ceramic.
Each tile is finished by hand in our Knoxville studio. Artwork is slowly infused into the ceramic surface under high heat and pressure, and rests beneath a thin glossy finish. The colour lives in the surface, not on top of it.
Pick any four 4-inch tiles — National Parks you've been to, a Smokies set, the four seasons of one place. $ for a set of , cork-backed, ready to live on the table.
The place, in three passes.
The outflow of Lonesome Lake leaves the western shore of the lake at roughly 2,740 feet and becomes Cascade Brook, dropping south and east through the forest toward the Pemigewasset River in Franconia Notch. The brook descends nearly 1,500 vertical feet over about two trail miles, much of that loss concentrated in a series of small step-falls and slides over Conway granite bedrock. The route is followed by the Cascade Brook Trail, part of the Appalachian Trail corridor through Franconia Notch State Park, and meets the AT and the Pemi just upstream of Whitehouse Bridge.
The brook runs hardest in late April and early May when the snowpack off Cannon Mountain and the Kinsmans melts into the lake and pushes through the outflow. By late June the volume drops by more than half, and by late August the falls run as a thinner cascade over polished granite with green moss along the banks. The brook carries dissolved organic acids from the surrounding spruce-fir, giving the water a faint amber colour in still pools. Brook trout hold in the larger plunge pools near the AT junction.
Most hikers reach the outflow falls as part of a Lonesome Lake loop: up the Lonesome Lake Trail from Lafayette Place, around the lake, then down the Cascade Brook Trail to the bike path along U.S. Route 3, returning north along the paved Franconia Notch Recreation Path. The full loop runs about 6 miles. The falls can also be reached from below by walking the Whitehouse Bridge approach off the bike path and climbing roughly 0.7 miles up the brook. Footing is wet and rooted; trail runners are not ideal.