coos canyon

Small town along our route with a beautiful waterfall course that is right on the highway. There is a gold mining store across the highway that has good coffee and the cashier was very helpful with directions to local outdoor attractions.

We stopped at Coos Canyon on our way North to Rangeley, Maine. It is very picturesque and worth stopping for if you do not have to go out of your way. Don't bother using the rest room/outhouse unless you can hold your breath while in there (horrible.)

We stopped for a break to get out of the car. Nice area, can see the canyon from the parking lot. Worth a stop to see if you are driving by.

If the water's flowing high enough (but not too swift) dare to take a jump off one of the many rock faces into the water- I did! If you're feeling lucky try searching for gold. Great place to stop and just walk around too.

We drove up here with the intention of panning in the river for gold. Stopping in shops, etc. along the way locals warned us that most of the areas where you can still find gold have been closed off. So instead of getting into the cold water and panning for hours for most likely nothing, we wimped out and went to the rock shop and panned one of their buckets of dirt seeded with gold. I know - not as cool or fun but we still had a blast and still had fun exploring the river and rocks just for fun.

My wife and I went here specifically for the gold-panning, as part of a little geology-themed drive up and down New England. The views were nice and the people were (mostly) friendly, but...Well, here's the dirty secret about gold-panning: It's boring. It's super, super boring.There weren't a lot of people around when we visited, which meant that, after renting our pans and receiving a quick training session at the gift shop, we were able to pick out a nice, private part of the river to plop ourselves down on. It's exciting at first, but you have to go into it with the expectation that you're never, ever going to find anything—and once you accept that, you're just sifting through dirt for an hour. It was fun to take pictures and be able to say I've been gold-panning, but the novelty wore off quickly for me and it's not something I'll feel the need to do again. Bonus points for being legit gold-panning though, and not one of those places where they just drop the gold in for you to find.

You can't help but drive by Coos Canyon and it's worth the stop to get out and stretch your legs. The scenery is neat as you can see by the photos. The park is small, I can't imagine it taking more than 15-20 minutes to walk all around it.

The falls were great even though the water was a little low from lack of rain. There was an outhouse which was locked up and then a public privy and when went in there it was so disgusting in the smell it was not usable. Unfortunately there are no other public restrooms for miles and miles.

Side of the road attraction with dirt parking. Outhouse style facilities. Very pretty waterfalls over large boulders with colored trees surrounding. Gift shop across the street.

Interesting river with small falls and wading pools. The surrounding area is nice. But not good spot for small kids (slippery) and there is a trash and cigarette butts all over. Oh well.

Coos Caynon is about 35 minute drive outside of Rangeley on Rt 17. You can't miss the place. It is on the right driving southbound. My son and I visited Coos to do some panning for gold. Not knowing what we were doing, we took a short 20 minute class to learn the technique of panning. From there, we were instructed that 3 miles of river were available for our use. This turned out to be a all day adventure. My son did not want to leave nor did I. Although we didn't find any gold of value, we found lots of fools gold and tons of fun. Don't worry. You don't have to bring anything but a towel because if you going to pan for gold you will get wet. For approximately $30 you can get the equipment needed for two people to spend the day on the river. Part of that thirty is a deposit that is refundable when return the equipment. If you are in this area, this is a great way to experience something new and fun as well as spend time outdoors.

This is a very scenic area with waterfalls and very interesting rock formations. Worth stopping for!

We often trailer up to Coos Canyon for our yearly snowmobiling adventures when it's not viable to go sledding to the South. You have to go early to have room for the truck and trailer, but you can head off in different directions once unloaded.Convenient restroom facilities is an added bonus.

I think Coos Canyon is magical, & the gem store across from it is wonderful, especially Rosie, the owner!!

this is a very nice section of river.there is a series of small rapids that appear more like a fall. in spring the water moves threw here very fast and is great to see. when it warms up you see people in the water cooling off.there is a rusic camping area here. and it is not more than a few feet from the main road..