A QUICK LOOK AT MILL CREEK FALLS

There really aren’t many waterfalls within an hour’s drive of Newark Delaware. Go due south, and it’s all Delmarva flatlands and impenetrable mosquito-ridden salt marshes, which have their own sort of primordial, excessively biological, charm, but aren’t characterized by the sort of rocky terrain required for watery cascades. Likewise if one travels due east across the Delaware River and into the similarly flat and swampy terrain of southern New Jersey.  

It’s only to the north and northwest that the land begins to rise (a bit) and the bedrock (occasionally) approaches the surface. This is the direction of the Piedmont, which is the very first hint of the still-distant Appalachian Mountains. And there are waterfalls to be found here. Not many, perhaps, but good ones. I’ve written previously about a small but scenic cascade that can be found right in Northwestern Delaware (if only about a mile from the Pennsylvania border).

But a little further west, after the Piedmont has gradually sloped upwards a few hundred feet towards Lancaster, the whole landscape very briefly dips down into a surprisingly rugged gorge. This is the valley of the Susquehanna, the sheer sides of which feel more like Appalachian slopes than they do the rolling hills of eastern Pennsylvania Dutch country.

Here, along with several steep tributary gorges and, incredibly, an extensive tectonic cave (I plan on doing a separate post on that at some point), is at least one true, legitimate by anyone’s definition, waterfall: Mill Creek Falls.

Mill Creek Falls through the greenery. These photos were all taken in early September, at the tail end of summer but still a month before when the leaves begin to turn. This year has been quite dry in my neck of the woods, so I was expecting the falls to be sort of thin and subdued. But, luckily, there had been thunderstorms the night before, so the water level was higher than expected.  
The view along Mill Creek.
Upstream from the falls, where it’s easy to get down to the streambed.
Natural waterslide.
A minor cascade upstream from the official falls of Mill Creek. In gorges like this, where there is frequently a succession of little steps leading up to a major drop off, I often find these overlooked miniature waterfalls almost as interesting as the larger, named, cascades. There’s just something uniquely engaging about intricate-yet-tiny natural features.
This is a fairly significant, though, to my knowledge, unnamed cascade a few minutes upstream from the primary falls, just beyond a point where the creek bifurcates.  
Looking up at Mill Creek Falls from the streambed. The falls are much taller than they look here. This is one instance where having a bunch of other visitors running around would have actually been helpful, at least for providing scale. There’s a bit of climbing rocky slopes involved if you want to get this view, but it’s worth it. And, goodness knows, I’ve missed a bit of climbing rocky slopes over the past few years.

If you enjoyed this post, please consider supporting me on my Patreon page. There, you can download [BEGINNING JULY 2022!] a new extended edition of my book The Green Unknown: Travels in the Khasi Hills which includes several chapters available exclusively on Patreon, as well as access lots of other perks. Any help is greatly appreciated!

Published by

Patrick Rogers

2 thoughts on “A QUICK LOOK AT MILL CREEK FALLS”

Leave a comment