The Cascade Falls Trail

This trail wanders through a mixed softwood/hardwood forest before arriving at one of Saco's hidden gems. While largely unknown by the general public, this area was once one of the city's primary tourist attractions and recreation areas. A dam, now gone, created a small pond that was used for boating. The state of Maine kept a caged bear near the falls for the amusement of picnickers. Today the area is quiet, although there is a steady trickle of visitors.

Click to enlarge Length (roundtrip): 0.8 mile. Directions to trailhead: From Saco City Hall, proceed north on Main Street, then Route 1 for approximately 3.5 miles. Turn right onto Cascade Road at the lights Ð this is just before you get to the yellow-roofed Cascades restaurant on the right. Take your immediate left onto a dirt road that leads to the rear of the restaurant property. Watch for a brown kiosk at the edge of the woods. Estimated walking time: 45 minutes.

The soil underlying the trail is largely marine clay deposited in Saco Bay several thousand years ago when this part of the Maine coast was nearly 200 feet below the sea. You can often see this gray clay along the trail.

About 1,500 feet after entering the trail, you reach an old tote road that follows the banks of Cascade Brook for a few hundred feet. The road then goes left as the trail continues right. Notice a broken dam, now dry. This was part of a water storage pond that once flooded the woodland above the falls. Small rowboats carried fishermen around the pond. In an even earlier era, the brook was dammed to provide a millpond providing power for a water-wheel driven mill. In another hundred feet you arrive at the top of the Cascade Falls. Please be careful. The cliff here can be slippery and at least one life has been lost on these falls.

Did you notice as you walked the last fifty feet toward the top of the falls that you were walking on an elevated path? If you look carefully at the down-stream edge you may notice that this is a constructed wall, also part of the water storage system.

Walk back from the dam and follow the path to the right down to the bottom of the falls. You'll notice an old cage, which was once used to display Maine bear for summer visitors. We understand that the State Wild Animal Farm in Gray once delivered native Maine animals to the falls each summer. The cage was reached by a bridge leading to Cascade Road on the opposite side of the brook.

Once you reach the bottom of the falls, look around and marvel at the history that has passed through here. Early European settlers built a mill here. A sluiceway carried water from the top of the falls to a water wheel somewhere to the right in that flat area beside the falls. During the US Civil War slate was mined beside the falls. In the 1920's movies about Alaska were filmed here.

Return when you wish, along the same trail where you entered.

We thank Jim Pease and Ben Buotte, members of Boy Scout Troop 371, who earned their Eagle Badges for helping to open the Cascade Trail. We also thank Unum Corporation for 20 employee-volunteers who spread 40 yards of woodchips to improve footing and keep the trail dry. We thank Saco Public Works for donating and delivering the wood chips. Members of the Saco and Biddeford Rotary Club helped renew the trailbed in 2004.