Great walk along the river with some spectacular gorge viewsread more

This is a great peaceful walk through a canyon that boasts wall formations 70 feet high…read more The hike is short, only half a mile, but you can continue walking straight into a state forest to make it a 7 mile walk if you'd like to. In the state forest, the trustee website states that you may see bears, bobcats and turkeys. Hopefully not! There are several erratic boulders making it a fun and prehistoric site to see. If you have time, you can stop by nearby Glendale Falls in Middlefield for a wonderful waterfall spectacle. This was a very beautiful and peaceful stop.

Not sure how I even heard of this place. But I did. So here I went. As far as state parks go, this…read moreone is pretty small. Only 48 acres. But a lot to see in those 48 acres. Takes about an hour to see every thing. When you are first driving in, you see the marble amphitheater. A grassy circle with tall marble walls surrounding it. Apparently there is an "art installation" here. Classical music plated at astronomical sundown every evening. HOWEVER the park closes at 4:45. So - if there are no visitors to hear it, do the rocks make a sound??? It looked like it would have been a gorgeous spot to sit with a bottle of wine, a loved one, and some tapas, enjoy sunset and some Classic Rock music. BUT the park is closed. When you reach the parking lot, there is a short trail that leads you to the white marble dam. A sign tells you that this is the only WHITE marble dam in the USA. Which leads me to believe there are other marble dams, just not white ones? It was pretty and peaceful. Further down the trail you come to the Natural Bridge. The parks namesake. And this was pretty disappointing. Maybe since I go out west every year and I've seen all the huge sandstone arches and bridges, I saw this bridge and it looked more like a teeny tiny slot tunnel. I guess it's a natural bridge in the Webster dictionary sense. But this was supposed to be the highlight. My advice to DVR - change the park name to be White Marble Dam State Park. Not as many disappointed customers.

After visiting Mass MOCA spend an hour down the road at this park - you will not be disappointed!!…read moreNatural Bridge State Park gets its name from its natural white arch made of 550-million-year-old bedrock marble that was carved by a glacial melt some 13,000 years ago. The bridge spans Hudson Brook as it runs through a 60-foot gorge, which DCR calls "one of the best demonstrations of glacial erosion in New England." The park contains North America's only white marble dam, built in 1838. It was first used to supply water to an industrial quarry mill that operated from 1810 to 1947. In 2022 the state closed an unsafe portion of the viewing platform that goes over the chasm along with other unsafe areas of the park. The park department is planning improvements including improved parking and visitor center arrival areas, expanded universal access, and a "reimagined chasm viewing experience" with new accessible overlooks of the dam, brook, and natural bridge. It really is a remarkable natural park and deserves attention so that people can come and enjoy all its beauty. Giving it four stars for its spectacular wonder and for the visitor center that has interesting information about the glacial formations.

This trail is hidden in plain sight but definitely worth finding. First you have to park at the…read moreymca next to the elementary school. Then creep around the playground and find the sign and steps on your right. They will lead you across a small bridge. Then you end up in a neighborhood and super confused. Keep going straight. At the end of the next block you will see a sign which I've attached. Follow this street to the dead end and that's where the trail really starts. It's super interesting from the beginning and starts off easy. It follows the river. As you get closer to the waterfall (yes an amazing waterfall) it gets more challenging. We climbed up the rocks to the base of the waterfall where this is a little pond. A true hidden gem and worth the effort.

Great little hike to the cascades which were beautiful. At the peak the pools are deep enough to go…read morein about knee deep. Water is cool and refreshing.

A sweet and easy little two-part path that starts and stops around Great Barrington. Lots of stairs…read moregoing down but smooth enough for a stroller. A brief little walk for dogs. Some strange abandoned buildings along the way though that felt a little eerie and unsafe.

I visited this trail today for the first time. I really enjoyed the view of the river…read moreand the serenity. The path is flat, with blue crushed stone and quite wide so even someone with a wheelchair could navigate it. At times the river falls out of view and comes back again while the trail takes you through meadows and more populated areas of the town. A great way to get out and enjoy nature in Western Massachusetts.

We really enjoyed this park. It is the highest point in Massachusetts and has amazing views. At…read morefirst we weren't sure if the monument was anything more than just a monument, but you can actually climb up to the top like with a lighthouse. The door is closed but you can just open it and go in. The AT Appalachian trail runs right past the monument. It also follows the roads coming in and out of the park. There is a lodge at the top that you can stay in with a restaurant. We might have booked a room and timed our trip differently if we had known ahead of time. We did check out the lodge and bought a postcard. We initially rode in on the north road and it was very treacherous and poorly maintained, not a great choice for motorcycle. The south road was paved nicely but had a couple spots that were washed out so it goes down to one lane around those. But it is much smoother and easier for motorcycles. Bonus fact, if you look really hard you'll see some clue about where the American School of Wizardry Ilvermorny is hiding on the mountain. [wizard hat and wand emojis].

I had a phenomenal time at this park! There are some wonderful hiking trails near the Visitors…read moreCenter. Make sure you stop by there for a wide array of travel brochures and displays that reveal the history of the park. It functions as a mini museum and it's FREE. They offer a couple of tours daily at the mountain summit. Overall, not a bad summit considering that it's New England. I'm accustomed to 14rs where I live. Park is clean. People heavy depending upon what time of day and year you visit. I visited on 4th of July weekend. It wasn't as people heavy as expected. The drive up from the main roadway is really nice. Beautiful area! I would visit this park for another opportunity if I'm ever in the area again.

Gorgeous place for a hike! While visiting this area, my buddy and I were looking for a place to…read morehike and I came across this place on the internet. It was close by and looked fun, so we went for a hike there the 4th of July. The sanctuary is well maintained and the trails for easy to find for the most part. Most of the trails are not too challenging, but the North Trail was very steep as it seems you climb down the mountain and then back up it! Not sure what the vertical was on that but going down there was a lot a bit of sitting on rocks and sliding down and climbing back up you needed to use your hands and knees a couple of times. Plus there are a lot of stream crossings, but none too challenging. It was raining when we were there so sometimes the stones were slippery but nobody fell in! If you go to the ledges (see map) first, you get a great view of the valley. If you want to continue on the trail, you need to go down to the stone ledges past the chimney and look north (to your right) and you should see the trail sign down in the woods. We didn't see it when we went there so we went back the other way and circled back around. It took us about two hours to hike around the entire sanctuary. We used the Dutch and Mary Barnard Trail, the Wolves Den Loop Trail and then the North Trail back to the Ledges and then back to the parking area. The main parking area is small...probably only 6-8 cars would fit there. I enjoyed visiting here a lot.

Hand Hollow is a 433 acre site with a pond and lots of hiking trails…read moreIn the late fall and winter it's definitely a 5 star spot but in spring it's REALLY MUDDY and in summer all you can hear on the weekends is the racetrack on Rt. 20. I walked the trails here last weekend and it was peaceful and serene. If you do all the trail loops it works out to about 5 miles worth of trails, not enough to make it a real work out but perfect on a winter day.

We only took the green trail and only a mile of it because the dog was being a jerk and my family…read morewas whining about the mud (this is why I usually hike alone.) But the trail was well marked and mostly gentle hills/easy, although lots of boulders/tree roots to watch out for. No bugs to speak of. Lovely this time of year with the leaves falling like rain in the forest. Cute bridges and benches.

This is a good park for hiking if you're into the absence of paved roads and being immersed in the…read morewildlife. We were targeting a relatively casual hike and definitely got what we came here for. For parking we drove through the camping entrance and parked in designated spots along the road. From there we followed the trail marked by blue on the trees. Straight away, we lost sight of the car and were suddenly surrounded by trees, rocks, dirt, and chipmunks. So many chipmunks! Now, this trail isn't casual by definition. A good portion involves walking up steep hills and over patches of dirt and rocks that may move under your shoes. But stay cautious and aware, and you'll really enjoy the trek. 45-50 minutes later, we were back out of the forest. I wouldn't mind if the trail was a bit longer.

I was looking for some adventure with a couple Bros and Fine young biker ladies. Wanted to get off…read morethe paved roads and do a little carving and some mud and dirt on our big Bmw adventure bikes. While these bikes are big and heavy they do cut these roads down to size pretty easily. Whether it's hitting jumps popping wheelies or skidding around dirt turns at high speed they perform very well. Decided to head to October mountain as the dirt roads there can be anything from easy to extremely challenging for the experienced rider. Additionally the views and scenery are generally outstanding. As always at the top of the mountain we got a great view of Mount Greylock across the way. After relaxing and maxing for a couple minutes we headed down to the Reservoir parking area and checked out the water. There was a few people fishing and relaxing with a picnic lunch when we were there. Did not stay very long and was back on the dirt roads looking for the more challenging areas and of course as always we found them. Huge potholes deep water and lots of rocks to crush with our cycles. After a few hours of fun filled mud covered Riding we decided we were going to go get some food then head home. What a beautiful day sunshine perfect temperatures and great scenery.