We're going to the lost city of ice
The frozen majesty of Lye Brook Falls
If you’ve never stood at the base of a frozen New England waterfall before, you should change that this year. As I wrote last winter, frozen cascades often resemble wintery kaiju (gigantic monsters), and when you detect the faint rush of water beneath all that ice, it’s hard to shake the eerie sensation that you’re standing before a slumbering behemoth that will stir awake from dormancy one day. You don’t necessarily have to strap on traction devices or snowshoes and go for a winter hike to see a frozen waterfall: one of my favorites—Moss Glen Falls of Granville, Vermont—is a roadside attraction.
But waterfalls come in diverse shapes, and this means that every frozen cascade resembles a unique creature or object. And in the hills of Manchester, Vermont—a gateway to Green Mountain skiing destinations like Stratton and Bromley—there’s a gorgeous 125-foot cascade that transforms into something from a polar legend when it freezes solid. Imagine a lost city encased in ice, carved into a mountainside and boasting hundreds of little buildings swallowed by frozen waters, and you’ll have a pretty clear idea of what Lye Brook Falls looks like in the middle of Vermont winter.
