Purgatory Falls

Purgatory Falls is a 15-foot tiered in New Hampshire, on Purgatory Brook. The water falls in 3 distinct tiers.

It's fullest after rain, and flow can drop off during dry spells — plan around recent weather.

Plungeworthy rates Purgatory Falls 6.4/10 — worth a detour. The score weighs its scale, how confidently it's mapped, and its character.

Purgatory Falls is southern New Hampshire's best waterfall system — three distinct falls on Purgatory Brook between Lyndeborough and Mont Vernon: a broad ~30-foot lower falls, a funnel-shaped ~25-foot middle falls, and an upper falls dropping about 60 feet in two tiers.

It's a genuine surprise for a corner of the state with no mountains to speak of — a wooded brook corridor protected largely by the Forest Society, with the falls strung along a streamside trail.

The constraint is parking: the Lyndeborough trailhead fits perhaps three to six cars, fills on summer weekends, and posts no trail map — go with directions in hand rather than expecting signage.

Spring and after rain — Purgatory Brook is a small drainage and the falls thin substantially by late summer. Weekdays avoid the parking squeeze.