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River

Crowe River

Class

Plunge

Size

Insignificant

Visitability

Average

Accessibility

Free

Activity

Walk Time

3min

Trail

Easy

Gorge Access

Moderate

Other Trails

County

Hastings

Follow Hwy 7 east from Peterborough, and continue east past Havelock. Watch for Tiffen Rd on the left, which is the second concession road west of the town of Marmora. Turn right on Tiffen Rd and follow to the end at Callaghan Rapids Rd. Turn left on to this road and follow to the end. This road leads to a passive conservation area, bordering the Crowe River. Park your car and walk out to the river. While it depends on where you park, you will probably need to turn right and walk downstream along the river for a few hundred meters to see the falls.

Settlement

Marmora

NTS Map

31C/5

Easting

285753

Northing

4924820

UTM Zone

Callaghan's Rapids is a very small, but very wide plunge waterfall. There are at least two "Falls" of no more than one meter in height, each spaning the entire width of the river, which here is about 40 to 60 m across. When river flows are low enough (probably much of the year), you can walk out and explore the river bed. The upper "falls" is interesting in that it is formed on a wedge-shaped outrcrop of limestone which appears to be bevelled down to a sharp edge, right at the crest of the falls.

The lower falls is of similar dimensions, but does not exhibit the "bevelled-edge" crest. Instead, the river drops over a broad limestone step, about one meter in height. Several large slabs of limestone litter the river bed immediately downstream of the falls. Erosion has probably separated these slabs from the rock formation forming the crest of the waterfall. It is quite possible that these slabs are slid downstream along the river bed during periods of very high flow in the river. River flows able to accomplish this would be rare, yet are responsible for much of the geomorphology (shape) of a river and its banks.

HELP: Can anyone tell me if there are more than two "waterfalls" at Callaghan's Rapids?

NOTE: When I visited this late fall, the last stretch of the road into the park was impassable due to very large water-filled potholes. I assume that it is kept in better shape during the warmer periods of the year.