The Mohawk Trail, Rt. 2, Massachusetts  - July 8, 2006

by the Cranky Yankee

(photos by C. LeBeau)

Well, I’ve put my money where my mouth is and did what I told all of you to do…got off my heiney and did some traveling and sightseeing around New England.

The hubby and I did a previously planned trip to Deerfield, MA, however once we got there, our original plans got changed a bit.  First, we did a morning cemetery tour, courtesy of the Association of Gravestone Studies.  The tour was at a Colonial cemetery located on the Deerfield Academy campus near Historic Deerfield.  Good tour…the guide was very knowledgeable.  There was an afternoon tour of a Greenfield cemetery that was a continuation of the day, but Joey and I had decided to tour Historic Deerfield instead and then maybe take a ride up to the Mohawk Trail. But, like I said, our plans got changed.  As we were driving into Deerfield to go to the cemetery, we passed two places that made us turn our heads; George’s Rocks and Dr. Spooky’s Animal Museum.  We didn’t have time to stop at either place on the way in, but after the morning tour, we headed back for further investigation.

George’s Rocks is a rock & fossil shop, but the décor on the outside definitely caught our attention.  There’s a dinosaur and a caveman out front!  Kids (and big kids like us) love this stuff.  Rock and fossil shops exist all over New England, and they are money pits...especially if you like jewelry (like me).  Of course, I dropped a few bucks.  Out back, there’s an “archeology” site for the kids to play in and a small area with life size dinos for the kids to check out.  Poor George had a problem…a large tree had fallen and crushed one of the dinos and took out a picnic table.  It just missed the store…good thing.  Despite him having a mess to clean up, he let us back there to check out the area.  We liked it.

As for the other place…well, roadside kitsch has not gone away...it just changes...for example, I give you Dr. Spooky's Animal Museum.  How do I describe this place?  Half haunted house, half animal exhibit.  All decorated with skeletons and a grim reaper and a graveyard, yet had all these live animals for kids to look at.  And it had a dinosaur exhibit in the back, including a “tent” to pretend you’re camping out, then it simulates a T-Rex walking by.  It…was…cool!  I really like the bat exhibit…they had a dish of bugs hanging from the ceiling and you could watch the bats fly back and forth getting their dinner.

At that point, both Joey and I came up with the same plan…if we did Historic Deerfield, we would not have time to explore the Mohawk Trail.  Let’s skip it this time (we’ll be back).  We had both gotten the bug to explore roadside attractions and needed time to do so on the Mohawk Trail, which is full of them. 

The Mohawk Trail in Massachusetts follows Rt. 2 between Greenfield and Williamstown and has some of the most beautiful scenery in the state, and plenty of kitschy, touristy places along the way.  Joey did the trip as kid with his family.  Many of the places are leftover from the heyday of American road travel (the 1950s), yet some places didn’t make it and were boarded up.  Most of you will be familiar with many of the sites through Joe Durwin's wonderful articles about the Berkshires.

We stopped at the Mohawk Trading Post, where I got moccasins (they are soooo comfy!), and later at the Big Indian Shop where I bought an Indian blanket.  There are souvenir shops all along the road…mostly between Greenfield and Charlemont. 

Along the way, we also stopped in Shelburne Falls, a little town turned artist colony that had many things of note…art and antique shops, a trolley museum, the famous Bridge of Flowers, and Salmon Falls with its glacial potholes.  We didn’t get to walk the Bridge (Willimantic, CT is currently trying to do something similar with its old stone bridge), but we did check out the falls and potholes.  Both Joey and I want to go back just to hang out in the town and do some more exploring and shopping!

The Deerfield River winds along side of Rt. 2 and there’s lots of boating on it as well.  We saw many, many people parked along the road to launch their boats.  In Charlemont, there is the Indian statue of “Hail to the Sunrise,” a memorial dedicated to Native Americans.  Once you get past Charlemont, the road starts leading up into the mountains and you get an eyeful of some great scenery.  Going through Savoy is mostly state forest and leads up to Florida where the highest point of the Trail is at Whitcomb Summit.  There you’ll find an observation tower and “The Elk on the Trail,” a memorial to B.P.O.E. members who died in the wars.  As you go down the mountain towards North Adams, watch out for the Hairpin Turn.

North Adams is another funky artist town that has lots to explore.  There’s Mass MoCA, the former site of Fort Massachusetts, and the Hoosac Tunnel.  We stopped at the Natural Bridge, the only naturally occurring marble bridge in North America, where I got a bit of vertigo looking down into the chasm.  I want to return to check out the Hoosac, look at galleries, and do some shopping.

Although the Mohawk Trail continues to Williamstown, the end of the trial for us was Mt. Greylock, the highest mountain in Massachusetts.  Its entry is in North Adams and you can drive right up to the summit.  Joey hung on for dear life while I tore up the mountain side….not really, but the way Joey was acting, you’d think I was barrel-assing up the slope.  Once we got on top, we wondered around climbing the observation tower (what a view!) and checking out Bascom Lodge, where many hiking the Appalachian Trail stop and rest overnight.  Mt. Greylock was worth the drive, but my father later kiddingly admonished us for not actually climbing up the mountain.  We are not physically fit enough to do it.  Two middle-aged, out of shape people hiking up a mountain?  It's not a pretty sight.  I was huffing just climbing up the stairs of the tower.

We plan a return trip to the Mohawk Trail as there are many more things we didn’t get to do (as mentioned above).  Traveling the Mohawk Trail is great fun and I recommend to everybody to take the drive...take your time doing it and stop along the way at ANYTHING that catches your fancy.  Do it...it's worth it.

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