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February 7, 2009

AuSable Chasm open year round

Ausable Chasm operational year round; boasts new winter tours

BY DAN HEATH

More Info

For reservations, call 834-7454 or e-mail chuck@ausablechasm.com. For more information, you can also visit www.ausablechasm.com.

AUSABLE CHASM — One of the area's more scenic natural attractions is now open year-round.

Ausable Chasm is now offering guided winter tours along its Rim trail, offering spectacular views of ice formations on the river and the chasm walls.

Ausable Chasm Recreation Manager Chuck Fries said the decision was made in November. He had managed the company's rafting operation for several years and was named recreation manager at the end of rafting season.

"I didn't want to just sit around all winter," Fries said.

Public interest also played a role, as tourists often ask if the attraction is open in winter.

The Rim Trail was completed in 2006. It offers two miles of chasm-top trail from the Gatehouse Entrance, on the southwest side of the Route 9 bridge over the chasm, to the chasm's end.

Previously, the trails entered the Inner Sanctum and ended at Table Rock, where the rafting rides start.

The first overlook offers scenic views of Rainbow Falls. One of the many signs that describe the scenery, flora and fauna along the trail states it was originally called Adgate's Falls, after Matthew Adgate, who settled nearby in 1792.

Fries said Rainbow Falls was originally at the other end of the chasm. Its rushing water has slowly eaten through the sandstone to create the chasm, a process that is estimated to have taken more than 15,000 years to make.

There's presently a 20-foot ice dome near the falls, created by the freezing mist as water pours over the brink.

"It will be interesting to see when that falls in the spring," Fries said.

That will create the potential for an ice jam, possibly just above Punch Bowl, where the chasm is only about 10-feet wide.

He pointed out deer tracks throughout the wooded terrain. Soon, Fries pointed out a spot where a deer had nestled under a tree.

He stopped at Top of the World vista, which is across the chasm from Hyde's Cave.

"This is where the first icicles of the year form," Fries said.

The cave is named after a man who lowered himself by rope in 1870, the year the chasm opened, and discovered a spine of rock in the middle of the cave.

Ausable Chasm is about 150 feet deep in most sections, Fries said, but up to about 200 feet in some areas.

He was accompanied on the snowshoe tour by Sean Babson, who was along to prepare for his own guide activities.

"It seems like the rock walls are different colors with the winter weather," Babson said.

Fries said it reminds him of an old saying that you never see a river the same way twice.

"There are few places that's more true than Ausable Chasm. It's different every day down there," he said.

A spring has worn away the rock to create Hour Glass, named for its distinctive shape. That water continues on to Splash Board Bridge, where crews work to keep it from being engulfed in 10 feet of ice.

From there, it's on to the Table Rock area, where the rafting and inner-tube tours start in the warmer months. Table Rock is 15 feet above the river, below a boom and winch system that is used to lower rafts and equipment 150 feet to the bottom of the chasm.

Prior to the two catastrophic floods in 1996, tourists rode in one of two, two-ton, 30-passenger wooden canoes. The operation included a pulley system to pull the canoes back to Table Rock.

The old boats often shut down in low water because they rode so deep in the water, and also during high water, because of the difficulty of maneuvering through rapids.

The change has allowed the start of inner-tube rides, because there is no longer the danger of a collision with a canoe being drawn upstream.

Next up is the bridge over the Grand Flume, where the river is 10 feet wide between two sheer 150-foot walls, the straightest section of the river in the chasm. The river was frozen from under the bridge through most of the rest of the chasm, Fries said.

The Grand Flume is only four feet deep at the start but about 60 feet deep at its end.

Fries had to turn around on the bridge due to the late hour of the day. It was just past the halfway point.

The second half is a bit steeper, Fries said.

"You will see the dramatic end of the chasm, where Rainbow Falls used to be," he said.

Fries said the ice starts forming in autumn because it stays so cold in the depths of the chasm.

"We see the last of the leaves and the first of the ice well before the snow," he said.

The tours costs $25, which includes admission, equipment and guide. It will be a regular hike, snowshoe or cross-country ski excursion, depending on conditions.

When conditions allow, tours will include a descent to the Inner Sanctum trail. That's too dangerous at present due to concerns about falling ice and rock.

Later this year, Fries intends to introduce a cave and waterfall hike. It will explore the ruins of the old Upper Chasm trail destroyed by the floods of 1996.

He said the one-hour guided hike will take guests face-to-face with Elephant's Head, inside Devil's Oven Cave and into the mist of Rainbow Falls.

Fries said the winter tours are available daily until about 2 p.m. because later starts would probably end after dark. It's a great time of year to have the scenery all to yourself, he said.

"My motto for these trips is it's never too cold to snowshoe."

E-mail Dan Heath at: dheath@pressrepublican.com

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AuSable Chasm open year round
by BY DAN HEATH , , Fri May 14, 2010, 07:05 PM EDT
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