Dismal Pool
Just visible to alert motorists for a split second shortly after they enter Crawford Notch from the north end, Dismal Pool contrasts with the surrounding waters that run fast and clean in the very mountainous terrain.
Even many locals do not know of the existence of Dismal Pool in Crawford Notch, at the base of Mount Willard. While driving down the steep sharp curve of Route 302 near the head of the Notch, you are probably concentrating on not going off the road, rather than gazing toward the forests and ledges of Mount Willard to the right where the pond is visible for but an instant.
To get to this dismalist of ponds, park your car at the first parking area on the right, within a quarter mile or so of the head of the Notch. Here you will find a rough sign labeled “Dismal Pool” and an even rougher trail headed steeply downward to the edge of the pond.
Dismal Pool seems out of place in this steep valley. It's dark, dank, almost stagnant muddy water and shoreline contrasts sharply with the clear and wild foaming waters that enter and exit the pond. There is evidence of beaver activity and the upper part of the pond is filling deep with rich loamy sediment. Here alders and swamp loving plants thrive in orange stained mudflats.
Squeezed between two rock ledges, Dismal Pool may have been partially formed by rock fall blasted from Mount Willard during construction of the Maine Central Railroad in 1875. large angular rocks have blocked the outlet, damming the small stream. This stream is actually the fledgling Saco River which flows through the notch on its way south where it becomes a much larger river.
C H Hitchcock mentions Dismal Pool in the second volume of his Geology of New Hampshire in 1877 and states that blasting during the construction of the railroad may have created the pool.
A walk around the pond is difficult indeed, as it is hemmed in by steep ledges and large angular boulders broken from the cliffs high above. Unless there has been a heavy rain or snowmelt, the outlet to the Dismal Pool shows no water, as it is draining through a mass of large boulders, as water through a sieve. Periods of very high water have left masses of sorted sticks and logs stranded on top of the boulder pile at the outlet of the pond.
Whether or not Dismal Pool was formed by blasting, it is readily apparent a large number of boulders, many of great size, have tumbled naturally from the high ledges on the east and west. This leads me to believe the pond may have been formed naturally. Perhaps the blasted material that fell from the construction of the Boston and Maine Railroad merely added to the pile of rock already damming the Saco River at this point.
Walking upstream beyond the pond requires hoping from boulder to angular boulder, on a slope of about 45 degrees. Small water falls and clear pools dot this section of the Saco River all the way to the large culvert that passes under Route 302 near the head of the notch. During the spring melt off and during other times of high water this steep section of the stream must be a raging torrent almost leaping off the side of Crawford Notch.