The Berkshires

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The weather is becoming autumnal now with temperatures barely reaching 60F during the day and dropping to near freezing at night. However it is still dry and mainly clear.

Today we explored the Berkshires, a forest covered hilly area in the far west of Massachusetts. Many New Yorkers and Bostonians have their summer homes here and it is a centre for the arts in the summer. At this time of the year the roads were generally very quiet.

We started by driving the remainder of the Mohawk Trail road due west over a 2,000’ pass and stopped in North Adams to view a natural bridge over a gorge carved out of a marble area. Next we drove to the summit of Mount Greylock at 3,491’ the highest mountain in Massachusetts. There is an observation tower on the summit which when we got there was crowded with a couple of busloads of very noisy teenage school kids. This made seeing the view rather tiresome!

In this area of the USA for over 200 years there has been a religious sect known as the Shakers. They used to have several communities but there is now only one, probably because they practice celibacy. One of the villages which is now unused is in this area and has been preserved for viewing by visitors. We spent an interesting couple of hours looking at the 20 or so building open to the public.

A delightful early evening was spent walking up a hill called the Cobble in the Tryingham Valley before driving back to the Charlemont Inn.

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