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River

Amable du Fond River

Class

Cascade

Size

Large

Visitability

Good

Accessibility

Free

Activity

Moderate

Walk Time

10min

Trail

Moderate

Gorge Access

Danger!

Other Trails

lots

County

Nipissing

From North Bay, drive east on Hwy 17 for about 35-40 minutes to Secondary Hwy 630. Turn right (south) and drive about 6 km to Peddlers Dr. Turn right and drive about 500 m to the entrance to the Eau Claire Gorge Conservation Area on the right. Drive to the parking area and consult the trail map.

Settlement

Eau Claire

NTS Map

31L/7

Easting

660500

Northing

5124532

UTM Zone

This is a first-class, sizeable waterfall hidden in the wilderness, yet still easily accessible by car. The main falls is a tall cascade about 12 m in height and 5 to 6 m in width. It pours into a deep, narrow forested gorge that is not lined with fences or safety walls. The gorge walls are high and steep, including a huge rock "gate" on the opposite side of the river from the photo location. Be careful here! At places, the gorge walls are rounded at the top such that you can't walk up and look over "the edge". The falls is quite big, and I wasn't able to photograph the whole thing with my digital camera's widest setting (about 35 mm), and still be able to include the horizon for scale.

For the best, and safest place to view the gorge, walk past the partial clearing in the woods that is immediately downstream of the falls. There is a big sign reading "danger" here, where the underbrush has been removed, but the tall trees remain. Walk downstream along the top of the gorge by maybe 20-30 m until you see a a weak path leading off to the left down a gently sloping portion of the forest. This ends at a rocky point just downstream of the falls, where you are able to view most of the falls. The above photo was taken from this spot.

I don't know if you can safely get to the base of the falls. You can follow a trail for several hundred metres downstream from the falls, which eventually takes you to river level. However, the gorge walls are high, and the river flow was considerable when I visited in Oct, 2003. You may be able to walk upstream to the falls during lower stream flows, but I have no idea if this is possible. Access to the base of the falls from anywhere in the vicinity of the falls appears to be very dangerous, so don't even think about it!

The trail upstream from the falls leads along the river past some smaller rapids and cascades. The largest cascade is probably a 2 m drop a few hundred meters upstream. I saw bear droppings on this trail on the day that I visited, and the visitor-book noted that someone had seen a bear here a few days prior to my visit. The siting wasn't qualified with any details, locations, or scary stories however, and was quickly followed by other entries of "Bear, what bear? We didn't see any bears." As always, be aware of your surroundings, and if in doubt, make noise. In all my trips to the semi-wilderness, I have never encountered a bear. If worried, travel in a group of 3 or more for safety. Chances are very, very, very good that if a bear realizes you're coming, he'll run away before you even know he's there.

There are outhouse washrooms at the parking lot, as well as a trail map, describing the colour-coded trails. The walk to the falls is about 10 minutes, but the trails pass right through some beautiful forest on the way. There are several routes to the falls, the longest of which is the Yellow Trail, which also happens to be the most scenic (ie. Passes the other cascades and rapids). You can also turn on the white trail and then watch for a red post indicating "To Gorge".