Great Barrington, MA area - recommended hikes

Hi everyone -
My daughter just started at a residential school in New Marlborough, MA, near Great Barrington, MA. New Marlborough is also just north of the Connecticut border and the AT runs south to north in the general vicinity. My wife and I will be visiting her from time to time, staying at a Great Barrington motel and doing activities throughout those weekend.

Certainly one of those activities will be hiking. I have done some research on some potential hikes, some which look pretty cool. Still, I figure my VFTT brethren should know a lot more. I would greatly appreciate any hiking recommendations you might have for this general area.

Many thanks,
Marty

Depends on how far you want to drive. But you can section hike the AT, hike the trails in the Greylock region. There is Bish Bash Falls and the surrounding areas to hike in. Lots depending on what you are looking to do . . .

sli74

Thanks for the response, Seema. As time will be limited for us, we are looking to keep our hiking south of the Mass. pike, say within 10-15 miles of Great Barrington.

Best regards,
Marty

Monument Mt, Great Barrington

Hey Marty!

Check out Monument Mt. It is a cool short climb w/ great views!
here is the website :
http://www.berkshirehiking.com/hikes/monument_mountain.html
for the Great Barrington area.
There is an official website for Monument Mt on this site.
This site also directs you to info for nearby hikes like Mt Alander and Race.

Enjoy!
Inge

You gotta love those Bershires!
Monument Mountain
Ice Gulch
Benedict Pond
etc. etc. etc.
There is a neat book "Nature Walks in the Bershire Hill" (AMC book)
that covers lots of trails in the Bershires, including directions.
And if you have time there is the very scenic bike trai (Ashuwillticook) that runs from No Adams to Lanesboro.
Also the Arcadian Shop in a neat mountaineering shop in Lenox with excellent maps of the area and nice people always willing to help you out.

York Lake

OOOoops forgot to add this:

OFFICIAL YORK LAKE WEBSITE DIRECTIONS
Park Directions
Sandisfield State Forest is located in the southern Berkshires in western Massachusetts.
From East or West/Mass Pike (Rte. I-90): Take Exit 2 in Lee. Follow MA Rte. 102 west for 4.7 miles to Stockbridge. Turn left and follow U.S. Rte. 7 south for 6.1 miles to Great Barrington. Turn left and follow MA Rte. 23 east for 3.5 miles. Turn right onto MA Rte. 57 east and continue for 8.2 miles through New Marlborough village. Turn right onto Forest Road (unpaved) and continue for 2 miles to day-use area.
From East or West/Rte. 57: On Rte. 57 in New Marlborough, at Sandisfield town line, turn onto Forest Road (look for brown park sign). Continue on Forest Rd. for 2 miles to day-use area. For a map:
http://www.bms.iwarp.com/photo4.html

iceNsnow said:

Hey Marty!

Check out Monument Mt. It is a cool short climb w/ great views!
here is the website :
http://www.berkshirehiking.com/hikes/monument_mountain.html
for the Great Barrington area.
There is an official website for Monument Mt on this site.
This site also directs you to info for nearby hikes like Mt Alander and Race.

Enjoy!
Inge

Click to expand...

I second the motion. The Devil's Pulpit is cool.

Another vote for Monument Mountain. The Local Hikes - Pittsfield webpage has another description of Monument Mountain, and a very scenic hike up Race Brook past several waterfalls to Mount Race and Everett.

A couple of nice short hikes on the Berkshire Hiking website are Campbell Falls and Bartholomew's Cobble, where there is also a nice view from Hurlburt's Hill. There was a recent TR on the Cobble.

Some great suggestions.

Below are two sites I often use in looking for new places to hike:

http://www.mass.gov/dcr/recreate/hiking.htm
http://www.thetrustees.org/pages/1581_property_directory.cfm

In 2003 I spent a long weekend in the Berkshires and put together a list of useful resources (maps and guide-books). That page also has pointers to trip reports, I very much recommend the trip up Brace and Frissell from the west.

G.B. also has a decent micro-brewery!

and rock climbing.....

Tom Rankin said:

G.B. also has a decent micro-brewery!

Click to expand...

I am in fact staying at the Travelodge next door to that micro-brewery, so stopping in for a cold one is a given.

Everyone: thank you so much for the fantastic advice!! Keep 'em coming!

Best regards,
Marty

Great Barrington

I'm not adding anything, but the hikes very close to Great Barrington that I've enjoyed the most are:

1. Race Brook Trail, which climbs up to the col between Race and Everett Mts on the AT, passing a number of waterfalls - you go to one and then the other, with good views most of the way, then back down Race Brook T.

2. If you have less time, Monument Mt. The ridge walk (really a crawl over boulders) is neat, even though the best view is down over the regional high school, and brings you near enough to Pulpit Rock it looks almost jumpable. There is a cave near the top where Hawthorne and Melville took shelter during a thunderstorm in the 1850s. Supposedly Melville got some ideas for Moby Dick from their conversation.

Here are a few more from a "local"

I would add:

Laurel Hill (and Laura's tower) in Stockbridge
Icy Glen in Stockbridge
Flag Rock in Housatonic (really nice climb to the ridge on the back side of Monument Mountain with a spur to a nice overlook rock where the locals maintain one or more flags).

Multitude of trails in Beartown State Forest

I believe that these are all in AMC Mass Guide and if not PM me - I grew up in Great Barrington.

Add one more

I took a hike in Chester-Blandford State Forest on Route 20, about 25 miles east of Great Barrington, and I started thinking I was seeing familiar things in a place I'd never been. Turns out it was a CCC camp during the Depression and my dad spent time there and had pictures that I'd seen when I was younger.
There's a great hike along the brook and another to the top of a small mountain with good views. It's also a place with good preservation of the CCC work and some displays at the trailhead of the workers and their projects.
Check out the GB brewery for two reasons: Great food and ales and a chart that shows the alcohol content of the various ales. They don't serve beer.

Lots of good suggestions so far. I'll add, embellish a bit.
From Great Barrington, go west on 23 to S. Egremont, then south on 41.
Here are some great choices:

1. Go about 2 miles past the Berkshire school on your right and you'll get to the Race Brook Trail pull off parking area. From there take the Race Brook Trail 2 miles up to the AT, past Race Brook Falls and through a really nice forest. At the AT you can go right (north) for another mile for a good steep climb up to Mt. Everett. Once on top go further on the AT about 200 yards and you'll see some rocks up on your left--excellent viewpoint. Then turn around and go back. From the junction with the Race Brook trail, you can go south up Mt. Race, a somewhat gentler climb. Once on top, make sure you keep going south for another 10 minutes and then you'll come out onto an open ridge that continues for another 1/3 mile with a steep drop off and wonderful panoramic views to the east. Once at the end of the ridge, turn around and go back.

2. Keep going south on 41, cross the CT border and in another couple miles come to the Undermountain Trail parking area. You can take the Undermountain trail up 2 miles to the AT then go right (north), climb Bear Mt., keep going down the steep north side, then eventually go right on the Paradise Lane trail for a couple miles back to the Undermountain. Or, keep going on the AT into Sages Ravine, explore the waterfalls and quiet pools of the ravine and once you get to the crossing at the bottom, turn around and go back.

3. Definietly get a Taconic Trails map if you can and you'll see many other possibilities. From Bear Mt. you can find your way over to Round Mt, Mt. Frissell, the CT highpoint (on Frissell), Brace, South Brace, Alander, etc., depending on how long and far you want to go. You can access the Western Taconics from Mt. Washington Road that goes right off 41 just out of S. Egremont, it goes into East St., past a trail head for access to Mt. Everett (mainly by a closed dirt road, not as nice as from the east) then one for access to Alander Mt., then further south one where you can get to the AMC Northwest Cabin, Bear Mt. and Sages Ravine to the east, and Round, Frissell, Brace to the west.

These mountains are beautiful and the busiest trail is usually the Undermountain up Bear, and that's primarily weekend afternoons.

Once you get some experience in the area ask for help (or do a search of recent posts in Trip Reports) and I can guide you to the elusive and beautiful Bee Line trail off Bear Mt. But that's for another time.

Hope this helps!

Jug End at the north end of the Plateau where the AT comes down is really neat too, a short but pretty steep pitch to great views. Race is my favorite from Route 41.

Just adding my vote for Bash Bish Falls...it's absolutely outstanding when it has a decent flow (April-June plus after any decent storm). Campbell Falls is also quite impressive. Bash Bish Falls is about 0.8 mile RT and Campbell Falls is only about 0.4 mile RT.

The MA road to Bash Bish was closed last year when I tried to visit. We had to go in via a NY road. I'm not sure if this is still required.

- Greg

Thanks again everyone for your advice!

Our first hikes were easy ones, as directed by my wife and daughter. We went to Stockbridge and did Ice Glen and Laura's Tower walk on Saturday (thanks for the recommendation, Maddy). Ice Glen was very cool and we saw some ice. Laura's Tower was an easy hike and the trails were probably the easiest footing I have ever seen. The partial views from the tower were nice, but clouds obstructed Greylock and VT. Got soaked from a downpour on descent. WATCH FOR POISON IVY ON THE SUMMIT. We also returned to Stockbridge late in the day for a nice river walk/trail run along the swollen Housatanic.

The second day hike was the loop trail around Benedict Pond in Beartown SF. Very nice. Got soaked again. Am looking forward to doing Ledges section on AT.

I will hopefully get the family to do Monument with me next time we go. If not, I will do it solo and perhaps Race/Everett the next morning.

The Berkshires are indeed a great place. We should have no shortage of hiking opportunities
Thanks again!
Marty