. Town: Richmond Rating: 4 Type: horsetails and cascades Height: main horsetail is 15 feet Source: Huntington River Trail Length: less than 0.1 mile Trail Difficulty: easy Altitude Gain: down 40 feet Hiking Time: none Alt. Names: n/a Summary: Huntington Gorge is equally famous for its swimming holes and its frightening death toll racked up in the last half-century. A sign at the falls indicates the tragic fates of 18 visitors from the period between 1950 and 1994. With some common sense, and some careful scouting, visitors can bypass the obvious dangers at the gorge, and enjoy the popular swimming holes and marvel at the gorge and falls. The gorge attracts some of the craziest personalities. We have seen many young adults leaping off sloping gorge walls, and others diving into swimming pools not nearly deep enough to warrant safe diving practices. We have even read that Huntington Gorge is a nudist hot-spot, although we had not encountered anything of the sort. For falls, the gorge has many small treasures, approximately half of which can be seen at each vantage point. There is also one main horsetail falling into the pool at the end of the gorge. The currents between the falls continue through the popular swimming pools within the gorge. We urge you to bypass these dangerous spots and restrict swimming to the large channel below the bottom falls. The area also happens to have a little history. By 1802, a grist mill opened at the site, and operated continuously for over a century. The Richmond Light and Power Company converted the mill in 1903 to generate electricity for the nearby villages. Nowadays, the gorge lies in its natural state, with evidence of past use nearly non-existent. Make sure to plan on spending hours at Huntington Gorge, and many more if you visit Devil’s Potholes nearby, another must-see waterfall and popular swimming place.