Quechee Gorge

We paraphrased most of the following information from an article by Frank Orlowski for The Quechee Times called "Quechee's Gorge: A Reminder of a Very Different Upper Valley".

About 20,000 years ago, continental glaciers covering North America began to melt and retreat northward. The glaciers melted due to changes in global climate changes caused by gradual changes in the earth's orbit and orientation to the sun (1,3). As we've seen in other sites around New England, these glaciers had dramatic impacts on the natural landscape. At its peak 14,000 years ago, what is now the Connecticut River Valley was once a long-stretching glacial lake called Lake Hitchcock (see image on left). The Ottauquechee River, which flows through Quechee Gorge, was one of the rivers that fed Lake Hitchcock. At their meeting point, the Ottauquechee River formed a delta with the lake.

About 13,000 years ago, the landmasses holding back Lake Hitchcock (in what is now Connecticut) broke, draining the lake in various stages over roughly 1000 years. Quechee Gorge formed when Lake Hitchcock drained. The emptying of the lake broke down the Ottauquechee River Delta causing great amounts of water to flow through the river. The bedrock in this area is what's called Gile Mountain Formation, which is a metamorphic rock that dates back to the Devonian age (about 400 million years ago) (2). While most of the 165-foot depths of the Quechee Gorge formed over the 1000 years that Lake Hitchcock drained, the Ottauquechee River still erodes the bedrock today as it flows through the gorge (2).