Flume Gorge and Avalanche Falls: When It Actually Flows
Franconia Notch's granite slot canyon with 45 foot Avalanche Falls sweeping spray across the boardwalk, open by ticket from spring to late fall.
May through late October, ticketed season
Big water window
in a typical year
Snowmelt
What drives it
Flume Brook
Live USGS
Data on this page
gauge 01075000
NH State Parks
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 Flume Gorge and Avalanche Falls, and when
Flume Brook is small, but the 12 to 20 foot wide gorge concentrates it into a genuine spectacle, and the park's description of the falls sweeping spray across the boardwalk is accurate in any month the gate is open. The controlling calendar is the ticketed season, early May to late October, with fees the park lists to the dollar.
Typical best flow: May through late October, ticketed season
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What the agency itself says
The 45 foot waterfall creates dashing spray and sweeps across the boardwalk before entering the gorge below.
Franconia Notch State Park, Flume Gorge (New Hampshire State Parks)What a snowmelt year looks like at full send: Palouse Falls in mid April, when the Palouse River is still carrying the melt. The same falls in late August is a ribbon. Timing is most of the visit. “04-15-14-palouse” — Dsdugan — CC0
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Right now
What Flume Brook is doing today
Flow at the gauge now
Loading
USGS median for Oct 15
Not published
Gauge: USGS 01075000 Pemigewasset River at Woodstock NH, on the receiving Pemigewasset downstream, a basin-level proxy. 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
The Flume Trail is a 2 mile loop with uphill walking and lots of stairs, per New Hampshire State Parks, open roughly May 8 to October 25 with adult tickets at $18 online or $21 at the window in 2026.
Water in a granite slot (Vernal Fall corridor, NPS photo). Avalanche Falls delivers the same drenching at boardwalk range inside the Flume. “Rainbow in the mist of Vernal Falls in Yosemite National Park. NPS-Madelyn Carpenter (18497149938)” — NPS Natural Resources — Public domain
Common questions
Flume Gorge and Avalanche Falls flow season FAQ
The reliable big-water window is May through late October, ticketed season. Flume Brook is small, but the 12 to 20 foot wide gorge concentrates it into a genuine spectacle, and the park's description of the falls sweeping spray across the boardwalk is accurate in any month the gate is open. The controlling calendar is the ticketed season, early May to late October, with fees the park lists to the dollar.
This page reads the USGS gauge on Flume Brook (Pemigewasset River at Woodstock NH, on the receiving Pemigewasset downstream, a basin-level proxy) 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 gorge walls drip and the falls runs all season; late summer is gentler but never absent. Winter belongs to the closed gate, not the visitor.
Franconia Notch State Park, Flume Gorge (New Hampshire State Parks). The Flume Trail is a 2 mile loop with uphill walking and lots of stairs, per New Hampshire State Parks, open roughly May 8 to October 25 with adult tickets at $18 online or $21 at the window in 2026. Trail status, closures and safety rules are theirs, and their page is linked on this one; nothing here overrides what they publish.
In their own words: "The rocks are slippery - please stay on the trail." That sentence is Franconia Notch State Park, Flume Gorge (New Hampshire State Parks)'s, quoted verbatim, and their page is the place to check before you go.
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
Keep planning
More falls, and the rest of the New Hampshire year
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 Franconia Notch State Park, Flume Gorge (New Hampshire State Parks). 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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