Sanderson Brook Falls - Chester, MA

Sometimes a wrong turn leads to something better...

We were heading for Chesterbrook and ended up in Chester. We were on our way and had driven for a good bit and I thought we should have already seen our turn come up. So we pulled over to look at the map and decided we had used the wrong exit leaving a parking lot and had ended up making a wrong turn.  Just after we turned around to go back we saw a sign for Sanderson Brook Falls and decided to stop.

Sanderson Falls is part of The Chester-Blandford State Forest. From the parking area on Route 20 there's about a 20 minute walk on a mostly flat gravel trail to reach the falls. At the start of the trailhead we could hear the brook roaring just through the trees to our left.

     
Given the August and September rains this year the brook was really running fast and we did see some damage to both the trail and the hills surrounding. There are three bridges crossing the trail as you hike. After the third bridge there is a bit of a hill to reach the actual falls. After the falls you can continue up the trail but on the day we visited the trail was washed away in places and there were a lot of downed trees so we decided not to continue the climb.

What was left of the trail

 Just before you reach the falls there is a narrow pathway that will take you down to the base of the falls.

The pool at the bottom of the fall was littered with tree trunks that had been washed down in the summer storms, but the spot was quite beautiful. We spent about an hour watching the water tumble over the rocks before we headed back.

Distance traveled: Approximately 2 Miles