Trifter

Located in the Taconic Mountains in the extreme southwest corner of Massachusetts is the beautiful and dangerous Bash Bish Falls.

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This oddly named waterfalls tumbles some 200 total feet through a series of gorges and a hemlock-hardwood ravine forest, and at the end drops some 60 feet in a V double tier fashion over a massive jutting boulder and into a sparkling pool below.

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It is believed that the final drop of Bash Bish Falls is the tallest continual single (or double as the case may be here) drop waterfall in Massachusetts.

Over the years many people have died while visiting Bash Bish Falls. The ledges above the falls are not stable and have crumbled under the feet of visitors carrying them over the falls to their deaths. Other visitors have died by jumping from the top of the falls into the pools below unaware it is filled with rocks just below the surface.

Source (Top of the falls, one can see how tempting it is to crawl out)

It is estimated that in the 1960’s some 20 to 30 people died at Bash Bish Falls. In 1973 a steel and cable fence was built above the falls and has reduced the accident rate considerably.

Image via Wikipedia (View into NY State from top of Bash Bish Falls with fence visible in lower portion)

The story of how the falls was named is also one of tragedy. Apparently a beautiful Indian woman named Bash Bish who lived in a village near the falls was accused of adultery and was sentenced to death. She was strapped to a canoe and sent over the falls. The broken canoe was found in the pool below but Bash Bish’s body was never found and she was deemed to be a witch. Years later, Bash Bish’s daughter found she was unable to provide children to her husband and leaped to her death over the falls followed closely by her distraught husband. Again the body of her husband was recovered but Bash Bish’s daughter’s body was never found. Some claim the spirits of these two woman frequent the pool and area right below Bash Bish Falls today. 

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In the 1860’s Charles Blondin the French acrobat who had walked a tightrope over Niagara Falls in 1858,  walked over Bish Bash Falls on a tightrope at the invitation of the falls owner Jean Roemer and survived despite being nervous about the boulders that lined the chasm below him.

In 1924 the state of Massachusetts purchased the area around the falls and it was turned into a state park.

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Bash Bish falls is located right near the Massachusetts-New York State border and one can access the falls by a moderately difficulty uphill foot trail from New York’s 5,000 acre Taconic State Park or take NY State Route 344 over the border where the road becomes Falls Road and the parking lot is not far past the border. From Massachusetts the falls are accessible from Falls Road near the town of South Egremont.

Image via Wikipedia

For more great waterfalls in the area please see Most Beautiful Waterfalls in New York State and Beautiful Waterfalls Parks in New York State.