Quechee Gorge State Park Trail System

Home , Ottauquechee River, White River (Vermont)

North Quechee Main St Ottauquechee River e ag ill V ee ech Dewey’s Qu to 4 Rt Mill to US Pond

to Quechee V illage

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o Dewey’s Mill Rd 4 t Parking

Visitor Center to White Ri ver Jct Restrooms Quechee Gorge Picnic area Bridge Wheelchair accessible Quechee Trail Gorge Trail Pets allowed on leash

Campground

Ottauquechee River

y Cliff l n o s r Foot trail e p m shaded areas are private property a d c registere

0 200 400 800 scale in feet rev. 11/06

Variable trail conditions may exist; please use caution. Check with the Quechee Gorge Visitor Center for current conditions. Quechee Gorge Geology Legacy of the Ice Age

West of Quechee Village, Vermont, the Ottauquechee River flows eastward within a broad and shallow valley. At Dewey’s Mills, just east of Quechee Village, the river turns abruptly southward and plunges into the narrow, rocky cleft of Quechee Gorge, 165 feet deep and over a mile in length. p re-g lac ia What caused this deep and spectacular natural feature? l O tt a Long before Quechee Gorge was formed, the Ottauquechee River u qu made a more gradual southward bend about a mile east of the present site of echee River the Gorge (Fig. 1). About 100,000 years ago, Earth’s climate cooled dramatically. The massive Laurentide Ice Sheet formed in northern Canada and flowed southward over New England (Fig. 2), burying the course of the Ottauquechee River under many feet of ice. bedrock About 13,000 years ago the climate began to warm again, and the ridge great ice sheet started to recede. When its southern margin retreated as far Figure 1. north as Quechee, the Ottauquechee River began to flow again, but instead 130,000 years ago of flowing directly into the Connecticut River as it had before, it flowed into an arm of a huge lake known as Glacial Lake Hitchcock (Fig. 3). This long, narrow lake backed up behind a gravel deposit left by the retreating ice sheet d . The Rocky Hill Dam as it is known, blocked the Connecticut River Valley ry O t just south of Hartford, Connecticut. Glacial Lake Hitchcock extended nearly ta Advancing Ice Sheet u q u 200 miles from Rocky Hill, Connecticut all the way up to near St. Johnsbury, e c hee R Vermont. iver bed As the revived Ottauquechee River emptied into Glacial Lake Hitchcock, its muddy waters built a huge sandy delta over the present site of Quechee Gorge (Fig. 3; U.S. Route 4 now follows the top of this ancient bedrock ridge delta.). The delta sand filled the old river valley to a depth of about 170 feet, gradually burying the eastern end of a broad, rocky ridge south of the river’s Figure 2. 100,000 years ago old, pre-ice age channel (Fig. 1). Soon after the ice margin retreated north from the Ottauquechee Valley, the Rocky Hill Dam broke. Glacial Lake Hitchcock drained, and the Retreating Ice Sheet Connecticut River began to flow again. Instead of flowing in its old riverbed, d however, the river was now coursing through a thick bed of mud that lined ry O t ta the bottom of Glacial Lake Hitchcock. u q Glacial Lake Hitchcock u e As the Ottauquechee River followed the draining waters of Glacial c hee R Lake Hitchcock to the sea, it turned south across the delta top at the future iver bed site of Dewey’s Mills, establishing its present course (Fig. 4). Meanwhile, a great waterfall had begun to migrate rapidly up the bedrock Connecticut River from the breached dam, eroding a deep canyon in the soft ridge lake-bed sediment. Where tributaries joined the river, the migrating waterfall Figure 3. divided into halves, one eroding its way up the tributary. When the waterfall 13,000 years ago that migrated up the Ottauquechee, it began eroding not soft mud, but the tough metamorphic rock of the buried bedrock ridge (Fig. 4) at Dewey’s Mills. The river wore slowly away at the hard schist of the bedrock ridge. t O tauqu ec h Over thousands of years, the waterfall carved its way northward with the e e R grain of the rock until the formidable barrier was cut clean through, creating iv er Deweys Quechee Gorge, the most spectacular river gorge in Vermont. Mill Pond

Adapted from David Laing, Consulting Geologist, 152 Christian Street, e g

r 4 o White River Junction, VT 05001 G

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Quechee Gorge is part of the 612-acre Quechee Gorge State Park and e t

ridge i

is managed for multiple recreational uses by the Vermont Department of Figure 4. b e Forests Parks & Recreation. Much of the park is under long-term lease from Present Day d the US Army Corps of Engineers. To request this publication in Braille or alternate visual format, please contact [email protected] VT TDD Relay Dial 7-1-1 Printed on recycled paper