Mountain Wandering: Little Tunnel Ravine

A relatively new slide on Moosilauke that I didn't know about? How did that happen? This winter the accomplished bushwhacker known as timbercamp posted photos from two treks to a slide in the main branch of Little Tunnel Ravine, on the west wall in the vicinity of the Nine Cascades. This small but very steep ledgy slide can be seen on satellite photos from 2023 and 2024. Several satellite photos from previous years are too dark in that area to determine if the slide is present, but it does not appear on a 2016 photo, which suggests that it may have fallen in the October 2017 “Halloween storm.”

Taking a break from trail checking for the AMC White Mountain Guide, I set out for Little Tunnel Ravine on a gorgeous day in mid-May, making my approach via WMNF Forest Road 171, which, after an initial steep climb on FR 170, provides pleasant walking.

Spring greens popping out in the hardwoods.

Approaching the bridge over Little Tunnel Brook.

As on several past visits to Little Tunnel Ravine, I followed an old logging road partway into the valley.

Little Tunnel Brook was surging after recent heavy rain.

The lower valley is gentle and beautiful.

There's a series of sliding cascades at a point where a tributary comes in from a branch valley to the east. That branch has its own slide that was triggered by Tropical Storm Irene in 2011.

It's really one long continuous cascade.

Still following the old logging road, more or less, but it soon petered out.

A lovely open glade.

The steep-sided ridges enclosing the upper ravine loom ahead.

A steep sidehill ahead necessitated a crossing to the west side of the brook. This narrow passage made it possible without wading.

A washout on the east bank.

The ravine steepens and the brook starts tumbling.

The terrain gets rougher for bushwhacking here, and there is plenty of hobblebush to bar the way.

An interesting spot where two loops of the brook rejoin after a split.

I believe this is about the spot where the "Nine Cascades" begin. These cascades were apparently regularly visited in the late 1800s. Wrote Warren historian William Little in 1870, “It has nine cascades, - one more than two hundred and feet high at a slope of seventy degrees, which comes laughing, leaping, tumbling into a great basin at its foot. A huge cliff, a hundred feet high from its brink, looks down on the falling waters.” AMC groups of 8 and 11 went there in the summer of 1888 while sojourning at the Tip-Top House and Moosilauke Inn. In that same year, a correspondent for the Concord Monitor reported, “One of these cascades is the celebrated Cliff where a cold mountain stream falls 250 feet, its waters dashed into spray and foam having worn a smooth basin-like cavity into the solid rocks for a depth of forty feet.” The largest waterfall in this series is actually ca. 120 ft. high and is quite impressive. I visited it in 2013 with friend John "1HappyHiker" Compton, that report is here. Bushwhack access is difficult. The big waterfall can be seen from NH 112, if you know where to look.

I love the long view here up a corridor lined with yellow birches. A similar photo appears in Moosilauke: Portrait of a Mountain, photographer Eli Burakian's magnificent ode to the Moose.

Getting deeper into the ravine.

Just before reaching the base of the slide I was seeking, I went over for a look at this steep slab, perhaps a remnant of a very old slide. The walls of the ravine are precipitous in here.

Arriving at the base of the recent slide. The tree debris did not look fresh, whichwould correspond with a possible 2017 date.

The slide has a very steep and wet ledgy footwall. No way am I going to try and climb up that.

I knew from studying the two-foot contour Lidar map on the NH Granit website that the terrain on and around the slide was exceedingly steep, and that getting up onto it might be problematical. On the map it appeared there might be a way to weasel up along the left side, so I headed over that way.

Another angle on the footwall.

Getting past this mess was tedious.

I scrambled up a little gully on the left side of the slide, but soon ran into a dead end.

I pushed up through some rugged terrain to a second gully, which seemed like it would exit well up on the slide.

I made it partway up this gully, but deemed the upper part too steep, wet and slippery to continue. Coming down would be treacherous. Time for a strategic retreat.

The terrain in here is pretty crazy. Many cliffs.

Talk about running into a wall.

Cool overhang.

Yikes!

Time to head back down towards the brook.

I knew the biggest of the Nine Cascades was at least 150 feet of very rough elevation above me. I decided to pass on that and hang out for a while enjoying these lower drops of the Nine Cascades.

This one has been called the "Cave Cascade" because in lower flow the water appears to issue from an opening under the flat rock. But today the flow was surging over the rock.

Beautiful view downstream.

More cascades below.

I found a nice flat rock in the stream and hung out for a while to savor the scene.

The cascades keep coming.

I poked around the edge of the brook to find a partial view looking back up at the slide.

When I first arrived at the base of the slide, I ruled out a possible approach up the right side. A second look on the way down confirmed that opinion. Wet moss over steep ledge, nope.