About Moss Glen Falls (Stowe)
Moss Glen Falls was the other of two waterfalls that we visited having the same name in the state of Vermont on the same day.
This one was located near the charming town of Stowe, which seemed to be a pretty popular place on the weekends as well as a bit of a winter ski resort.
This waterfall was memorable to us because it seemed to have a bit of a Quebecois flavor to it.
In hindsight, this probably shouldn’t have been surprising given its close proximity to the Canadian border.
Unlike the other Moss Glen Waterfall in Granville, this one near Stowe was significantly taller at a reported 125ft.
However, it was a bit harder to access as we needed to hike to it in order to see it from an overlook that offered a limited view between trees (as you see pictured above).
Hiking to Moss Glen Falls
The hike started off innocently enough at a fair-sized unpaved parking lot (see directions below).
At this parking area, there was a plaque and some signage indicating that we were in the C.C. Putnam State Forest Burt Hollow Block.
From there, a flat and somewhat narrow trail passed through a forested area before traversing a stretch of muddy terrain.
Fortunately, most of the sloppiest parts of the trail had wooden planks acting as boardwalks.
After getting through the muddy stretch of trail, we then followed the Moss Glen Brook briefly before the trail then steeply climbed a short distance up to a narrow ridge.
Since I was carrying our two-year-old on my back, I was a little nervous about the steepness of the trail and the dropoffs immediately on either side of the ridge.
It was definitely not a place to let her roam free.
From the narrow ridge, we were able to get the nice frontal view of Moss Glen Falls where we could best appreciate its full height.
The view allowed us to witness where the Moss Glen Brook fell in multiple tiers with one of the tiers having a bit of a fan shape to it.
Julie and I observed that there was a very steep and slippery scramble leading down to the base of the falls from the ridge.
However, it looked way too dicey so we didn’t attempt it.
We were also cognizant that an easier way to the base was from wading upstream in the Moss Glen into the gorge itself.
However, we had neither the time nor the will to get wet and sloppy with the stream scramble, especially in light of a very long driving day with daylight waning.
Beyond the view of the Moss Glen Falls, we also saw other hikers continue further up the trail.
I’d imagine that they ended up going up to the top of the falls.
In any case, we were content with the view and didn’t try to continue up that trail either.
So overall, we spent about 40 minutes away from the car.
As a result of us turning down other opportunities to experience Moss Glen Falls in other ways, we wound up with a bit of a look-but-don’t-touch experience.
Authorities
Moss Glen Falls resides in the C.C. Putnam State Forest near Stowe in Lamoille County, Vermont. It is administered by the Vermont Agency of Natural Resources. For information or inquiries about the area as well as current conditions, visit their website.
To get to Moss Glen Falls from the historical part of the town of Stowe, VT by the Hwy 108 and Hwy 100 junction, we headed east on the Hwy 100 (Main St) for about 3 miles.
We then left the Hwy 100 and kept right onto Randolph Rd, where we then turned right onto the unpaved Moss Glen Road.
Following this road for 0.6 miles, we then saw the trailhead parking to our left.
Something to consider when returning to Stowe was that getting back on VT-100 from Randolph Rd was neither easy nor as straightforward as it would appear on the map.
That was because the high rate of traffic in both directions combined with the uncertainty of whether the oncoming traffic would keep left onto the highway or veer right to leave it made it a potentially dangerous junction as well as an exercise in patience.
To give you some geographical context, Stowe was 23 miles (30 minutes drive) northwest of Montepelier, 176 miles (over 3 hours drive) north of North Adams, MA, 112 miles (2.5 hours drive) southeast of Montreal, QC, Canada, and 199 miles (over 3 hours drive) northwest of Boston, MA.
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Zoomed in top down sweep of the falls before zooming out (with some Quebecois guys having a conversation)
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