One of New England's tallest single drops, on Moxie Stream near The Forks, managed as state land with a boardwalked trail and famously little bureaucracy.
Mid April through June
Big water window
in a typical year
Snowmelt
What drives it
Moxie Stream
Climatology
Data on this page
Moxie Stream is ungauged
Maine BPL
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 Moxie Falls, and when
Moxie Stream drains Moxie Pond into the Kennebec gorge country, peaking with the spring melt and holding a workable flow all year. Maine's Bureau of Parks and Lands keeps a thin web presence for the property, listing Moxie Falls State Park in its park rules; heights circulating for the falls come from third parties rather than from the bureau.
Typical best flow: Mid April through June
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What the agency itself says
Hunting is not permitted between June 1 and Labor Day at any of the properties listed below: ... Moxie Falls State Park ...
Maine Bureau of Parks and Lands (Moxie Falls State Park)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
Current flow at Moxie Falls
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 gentle trail with boardwalk sections reaches viewing platforms above the gorge, off Lake Moxie Road from Route 201 at The Forks. No fee, no gate; state park rules apply, including the June to Labor Day hunting restriction the rules list for the property.
North woods water (Blackwater Falls, West Virginia). Moxie Falls runs the Maine version, melt-fed and blissfully undeveloped. “Blackwater Falls (15437499241)” by Benjamin Smith from United States, CC BY 2.0
Common questions
Moxie Falls flow season FAQ
The reliable big-water window is Mid April through June. Moxie Stream drains Moxie Pond into the Kennebec gorge country, peaking with the spring melt and holding a workable flow all year. Maine's Bureau of Parks and Lands keeps a thin web presence for the property, listing Moxie Falls State Park in its park rules; heights circulating for the falls come from third parties rather than from the bureau.
Moxie Stream has no USGS gauge near the falls, so the seasonal pattern above is the flow guide for Moxie Falls, and Maine Bureau of Parks and Lands (Moxie Falls State Park) is the source for current conditions on the ground.
Late summer softens it to a strong cascade rather than a thunderclap. The Kennebec rafting season next door runs on dam releases; Moxie Stream, unfashionably, runs on weather.
Maine Bureau of Parks and Lands (Moxie Falls State Park). A gentle trail with boardwalk sections reaches viewing platforms above the gorge, off Lake Moxie Road from Route 201 at The Forks. No fee, no gate; state park rules apply, including the June to Labor Day hunting restriction the rules list for the property. 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
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 Maine Bureau of Parks and Lands (Moxie Falls State Park). National picture: waterfall season across the US → Hero image: “Blackwater Falls (15437499241)” by Benjamin Smith from United States, CC BY 2.0
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