Smugglers' Notch's gorge falls below Mount Mansfield, with the best-matched gauge in the East: USGS reads the falls' own brook just above the drop.
April through June
Big water window
in a typical year
Snowmelt
What drives it
West Branch of the Little River
Live USGS
Data on this page
gauge 04288225
Vermont FPR
Managed by
their rules govern
Trail status, closures and safety rules belong to each falls' managing agency, named and linked on every page.
The season
What fills Bingham Falls, and when
The West Branch drains Mount Mansfield's east side, peaking with the April to June melt and thinning to a few cfs by late summer; the USGS gauge is literally named for its position above Bingham Falls, so the number on this page is the falls' own water. The Notch road above closes each winter, per the state.
Typical best flow: April through June
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What the agency itself says
provides easy access to outstanding hiking on the Long Trail, Moss Glen Falls State Natural Area, Bingham Falls, and the Mt. Mansfield Toll Road.
What West Branch of the Little River is doing today
Flow at the gauge now
Loading
USGS median for Oct 15
Not published
Gauge: USGS 04288225 W Branch Little R abv Bingham Falls near Stowe VT, immediately upstream of the falls, on the falls' own stream and named for it. The gauge reads the river, not the brink of the falls, so treat it as the trend line rather than a turnstile.
Source: USGS Water Services (National Water Information System). Instantaneous values and daily statistics services. U.S. Geological Survey data are works of the United States Government and are in the public domain. Gauge verified 2026-08-27.
The other half of the story: the same Palouse Falls in late August. Nothing is wrong; this is what a snowmelt river does every year once the melt is spent. “Palouse Falls 20100829” by Mark Wagner, CC BY-SA 2.5
Getting there
Access, in the agency's words and ours
A short, rooty trail drops from Route 108 below the Notch to gorge viewpoints and the lower pool; Vermont FPR's Smugglers' Notch pages note the Notch road itself, lined with thousand foot cliffs, closes in winter.
Mountain melt in a carved slot (Vernal Fall's Merced, NPS photo). Bingham's gorge runs the same physics with its own dedicated USGS gauge just upstream. “Rainbow in the mist of Vernal Falls in Yosemite National Park. NPS-Madelyn Carpenter (18497149938)” — NPS Natural Resources — Public domain
Common questions
Bingham Falls flow season FAQ
The reliable big-water window is April through June. The West Branch drains Mount Mansfield's east side, peaking with the April to June melt and thinning to a few cfs by late summer; the USGS gauge is literally named for its position above Bingham Falls, so the number on this page is the falls' own water. The Notch road above closes each winter, per the state.
This page reads the USGS gauge on West Branch of the Little River (W Branch Little R abv Bingham Falls near Stowe VT, immediately upstream of the falls, on the falls' own stream and named for it) live in your browser, and shows the latest flow next to the median USGS publishes for today's date, so you can see where today sits in the year. The gauge reads the river, not the brink, so treat it as the trend rather than a turnstile.
The gauge above the falls has read under 3 cfs in late August, a bare trickle; spring runs two orders of magnitude higher. Few pages on this site show the seasonal swing this precisely.
Vermont Department of Forests, Parks and Recreation (Smugglers' Notch State Park area). A short, rooty trail drops from Route 108 below the Notch to gorge viewpoints and the lower pool; Vermont FPR's Smugglers' Notch pages note the Notch road itself, lined with thousand foot cliffs, closes in winter. Trail status, closures and safety rules are theirs, and their page is linked on this one; nothing here overrides what they publish.
Yosemite Falls in May, running on snowmelt that will be gone by late summer. The National Park Service tells visitors the falls can be dry by August, which is why every falls page here starts from its watershed. “Tourists below Yosemite Falls (39832011431)” by Mike McBey, CC BY 2.0
One of Vermont's highest waterfalls at over 100 feet of total drop, coursing through a gorge outside Stowe, at full song during the Green Mountain melt.
A glacially carved chute-and-pothole falls on the Hancock Branch in the Green Mountain National Forest, framed by bridges and open to snowshoers in winter.
Flow windows are typical-year climatology drawn from the driver and the agency language quoted above, not forecasts. Live readings and per-date percentiles are U.S. Geological Survey data, public domain; the above-or-below-typical line is our comparison and is labelled as such. Access, trail and safety information belongs to Vermont Department of Forests, Parks and Recreation (Smugglers' Notch State Park area). National picture: waterfall season across the US → Hero image: “Rainbow in the mist of Vernal Falls in Yosemite National Park. NPS-Madelyn Carpenter (18497149938)” — NPS Natural Resources — Public domain
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