Ellis River

About

Glen Ellis Falls, Ellis River, New Hampshire — 64-Foot Cascade, Pinkham Notch, Jackson. The USGS gauge 01064300 tells the practical story for anyone reading water on the Ellis. Its average flow runs around 280 CFS, and the paddling window opens between 200 and 800 CFS. The river peaks at Class II–III, steepest in the upper stretch from Pinkham Notch to Jackson, where it drops through a mountain run before easing to Class I–II on the covered-bridge section between Jackson and Glen.

The river drains the eastern flank of Wildcat Mountain, a 38-square-mile subwatershed of the Saco. Its most famous feature, Glen Ellis Falls, plunges sixty-four feet over a granite cliff face and is reached by a short but steep 0.2-mile trail from the NH Route 16 trailhead in Pinkham Notch. Four miles from the falls, the AMC's Joe Dodge Lodge has anchored the area's recreation economy since 1924.

Long before settlers arrived, the Ellis River valley served as an Abenaki travel route through the Presidential Range. The steep granite gorges held seasonal fishing camps, where brook trout gathered in the cold mountain pools that still define the river's character today.

The valley's modern shape was cut by timber. From the 1830s through the 1920s, the Ellis River watershed was logged to feed the regional timber industry of 1850–1910 and the railroad expansion of 1860–1910. Local sawmills, logging drives, and downstream lumber operations were the major operators. Three forces ended large-scale cutting: the 1910 exhaustion of the old-growth stands, the 1915 start of state forestry conservation, and the establishment of state forests in the 1930s. The river's hydrology was documented across the same span — the USGS survey of the 1870s–1890s, gauging-station establishment in the 1880s–1910s, and state streamflow assessments of the 1910s–1930s formed the first comprehensive studies of its flow.

That long balance was tested in August 2011, when Tropical Storm Irene turned the Ellis into a destructive torrent. The flood washed out roads and covered bridges in Jackson, reshaped the channel, and prompted major flood-resilience investments in the village. The damage was mended slowly through FEMA-funded restoration work led by the US Forest Service between 2012 and 2020, leaving the river both wilder and quietly resilient.

Today the upper reach above the falls remains designated Wild Trout water by NH Fish and Game, supporting native brook and rainbow trout that thrive without any stocking. The river runs through the White Mountain National Forest and the Jackson NH covered bridge corridor, drawing paddlers, anglers, and day hikers to a fifteen-mile corridor that has recovered its footing since Irene.