Grafton Notch State Park  Photos:  Recent | Best | Popular Lat, Long:  44.5873, -70.9353 Map Page Views:  1,656. Good page?    Administrators:  Ladd Raine, Tom Erickson Submitted By:  Unassigned User on Jun 29, 2009 Make this area a Favorite What's New   Print a Mini-Guide with routes Add Route  Add Photo  Add Comment  Add Event

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 closed to climbing. 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. There are images of the notch on the web.

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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