The Mohawk Trail

Location: Northwestern Massachusetts
Drive route names: Massachusetts Highway 2
Travel season: Year-round
Special attractions: Scenic views, rafting, kayaking, hiking, fishing.
Camping: In several state forests on or just off the drive. Mohawk Trail State Forest has 56 sites; Savoy Mountain State Forest has 45 sites; Mount Greylock State Reservation has 47 sites.
Services: All services in Greenfield, Shelburne, Shelburne Falls, North Adams, and Williamstown.

From The Mohawk Trail.com

The drive: The Mohawk Trail, first designated scenic road in New England, from Greenfield in the Connecticut River valley to the quaint college town of Williamstown in far northwestern Massachusetts. The drive also makes a 9-mile detour south to the airy summit of Mount Greylock, the state's highest peak. One of New England's most beautiful and famed scenic roads, the Mohawk Trail is a drive to be savored and enjoyed time after time, season after season. The drive follows a centuries-old footpath blazed by Indians, traverses deep valleys floored by rivers, high wooded ridges and mountains, white farmhouses surrounded by grassy pastures, apple orchards, colonial villages, and a blaze of autumn colors during prime leaf-peeper season. The paved highway is open year-round, although the Mount Greylock spur road closes in winter.

The route also crosses the Berkshire Hills, a southern extension of Vermont's Green Mountains. The Berkshires, comprising a high, rolling plateau without a definite mountain spine, are a remnant of the uplifted New England peneplain. A handful of steep river valleys slice deeply into the range, but nowhere do the rivers cut completely across the formidable Green Mountain-Berkshires upland barrier. This mountain barrier was long an impediment to westward travel, expansion, and settlement. The Mohawk Trail carves a path across an interesting cross-section of the Berkshire uplift. It traverses the Deerfield River Valley before following the deep gorge of the tributary Cold River to the top of the plateau. At the western edge of the plateau, the escarpment drops abruptly 1,000 feet to North Adams and the Hoosic River Valley. Across the wide valley towers Mount Greylock, one of the highest peaks in the Taconic Mountains, a long range that stretches along New York's eastern border from northern Connecticut to central Vermont.

The drive begins on the west side of Greenfield at the rotary intersection of Interstate 91 and Massachusetts Highway 2. Go west on MA 2. The actual designated Mohawk Trail begins 20 miles to the east in Orange.

Greenfield, the seat of Franklin County, spreads among green and fertile fields on the west bank of the wide Connecticut River at its confluence with the Deerfield River. The old town, originally settled as part of greater Deerfield in the 1680s, incorporated in 1753 and drew its name from the verdant grasslands blanketing the valley. The town, with a population of about 18,000, has long prospered as an agricultural and industrial center. The country's first cutlery factory opened here in the early 1800s. It retains an interesting Main Street with an eclectic assortment of buildings. A few of these include the Greenfield Public Library and St. James Church, an 1847 reproduction of an English church. The local historical society has a small collection of local artifacts, furniture, photographs, and paintings on display at 3 Church Street.

Before you go much farther, a worthwhile side-trip is Historic Deerfield village just south of Greenfield on U.S. Highway 5. Deerfield, established in 1663 on the lush river plain, is considered the best-preserved colonial village in New England. Along The Street, Deerfield's main avenue, sit sixty-five eighteenth- and nineteenth-century houses and buildings with fourteen of them open to the public. For years after its settlement, Deerfield was a remote and dangerous outpost on the edge of the great western wilderness. Two major Indian raids in the years just after its founding decimated the settlement, including the Bloody Brook Massacre on September 18, 1675, when sixty-four men, most of the village's male population, were killed in an Indian ambush during King Philip's War.

An even worse event occurred one cold February dawn during Queen Anne's War in 1704 when the French led a contingent of 350 Indians into the Deerfield stockade, killing 49 residents, burning much of the village, and capturing 112 prisoners that were marched 300 miles north in the dead of winter to Canada. One eyewitness who survived the attack later recalled, "not long before the break of day, the enemy came in like a flood upon us; our watch being unfaithful." Within three years the town was resettled by many of the same families, and flourished through the 1700s as an agricultural center.

Over time neighboring Greenfield usurped Deerfield as the commercial and business center of the upper Pioneer Valley, which kept Deerfield from destroying its old colonial heritage. Now its historic district stands as a charming, elegant reminder of the richness of American life in the eighteenth century. Almost 6,000 acres of prime farmland surrounding the village have also been acquired and removed from modern development. Historic Deerfield is hard to see in a single day -- there is so much to explore. Begin by stopping at the visitor center in Hall Tavern in the heart of Deerfield. Maps, interpretative information, a short film, and admission passes to the buildings are here. Admission to all the dwellings is by guided tour with a costumed interpreter only.

Since it's hard to visit all the interesting sights here, it's best to pick a few and come back another day to visit others. Some of the best buildings include the 1717 Wells-Thorn House, once owned by tavern owner Ebenezer Wells; the 1733 Ashley House inhabited by Reverent Jonathon Ashley; the 1799 Federal-style Asa Stebbins House, a brick home built by a wealthy farmer and decorated with scenic French wallpaper that depicts the South Sea voyages of Captain Cook; and the Memorial Hall Museum, which includes a door hacked by Indian hatchets in the terrible 1704 ambush along with a textile museum, silver, and metalware collection and a nineteenth-century printing office.

The scenic drive begins by heading west on Massachusetts Highway 2 from I-91 and Greenfield. The road quickly passes through a business strip mall and bends north into woods and out of town as it arcs around Greenfield Mountain, a high knoll perched above the broad valley. After about a mile is Shelburne Summit, with an observation tower that yields a spacious view east across the Connecticut River Valley and north to New Hampshire and Vermont. Continuing westward, the highway swings around the mountain to enter the Deerfield River Valley at Shelburne. The river lies below the highway in a deep, steep-walled valley. The Mohawk Trading Post, the first in a series of "trading posts" along the route that vend American Indian crafts, sits alongside the drive with its prominent totem pole (a Northwest Coast Indian symbol) and teepees (the traveling lodge of the Plains tribes). Farther along are a couple of maple sugar houses, including Gould's Maple Farm, which offer sap-to-syrup demonstrations in early spring.

Low hills composed of ancient granites and metamorphic rocks rise beyond the valley and highway. A diverse woodland of white pine, poplar, sugar maple, black locust, American elm, and red oak blankets the hillsides, while willow and sycamore trees shade the riverbanks. After almost 8 miles, a spur road, Massachusetts Highway 2A, turns south (left) and leads 0.5 mile into the tidy hamlet of Shelburne Falls. This 1768 village, named for Salmon Falls and the second Earl of Shelburne, straddles the Deerfield River. It once had a hill-farm economy, but now relies on tourism along with local dairy farms and maple sugaring houses for sustenance. Linus Yale constructed his first Yale locks here in 1851. Its Victorian-style downtown, relatively unchanged since the turn of the last century, is lined with attractive shops, art galleries, and restaurants.

The unusual Bridge of Flowers is the main attraction that every Mohawk traveler wants to see at Shelburne Falls. An abandoned 398-foot-long, five-arch trolley bridge, now reserved for pedestrians, is decorated with more than five hundred flower species that bloom from spring to fall. The local Shelburne Women's Club cultivates the beautiful and prolific gardens as a war memorial with an ingenious use of the defunct bridge. The bridge actually links Shelburne Falls with the neighboring township of Buckland.

Back on the drive, the highway reaches its junction with Massachusetts Highway 112 just past Shelburne Falls. A left turn on MA 112 leads to the placid 1779 village of Buckland, with a classic church, some lovely 1700s houses, and a small museum.

The scenic drive route heads west up the deepening valley. The Deerfield River runs deep and still through this section, its calm waters reflecting trees, sky, and clouds. About 7 miles from Shelburne Falls the drive reaches Charlemont, a snug town along the river's fertile floodplain. White clapboard homes with grassy yards studded with snowball bushes line the highway. Nearby is the rebuilt Bissel Covered Bridge over the Deerfield River. The hills across the valley harbor Berkshire East Ski Area and its 1,180-foot vertical drop, thirty trails, and plenty of beginner and intermediate terrain. The Deerfield River in this area offers some of Massachusetts's best trout fishing as well as a challenging 10-mile raft run over Class II and III rapids.

Just past Charlemont, the drive intersects MA 8A, which heads south into the heart of the Berkshire Hills. The road continues west past an old farm amid corn fields and, a mile later, a roadside rest area with picnic tables beside the river. A historical marker here remembers the Shunpike, the nation's first toll-free "interstate" road, which followed the river. The site is dedicated to "the thrifty travelers of the Mohawk Trail who forded the Deerfield River here in 1797 rather than pay a toll at the turnpike bridge." This protest helped win the battle for free travel on Massachusetts roads by 1810. Adjacent to the marker is an old cemetery with the remains of many area pioneer families.

The highway crosses the river on the Mohawk Indian Bridge and reaches Mohawk Park and its landmark bronze sculpture of a Mohawk with upraised arms on the opposite bank. The statue, placed atop a 9-ton boulder in 1932, honors the five Indian nations that regularly used the Mohawk Trail. An arrowhead-shaped tablet at the base reads: "Hail to the Sunrise -- In Memory of the Mohawk Indian." The valleys that the highway now follows through the northern Berkshire Hills were once traversed by a centuries-old Indian trail leading from the fertile Connecticut Valley to the Mohawk and Hudson river valleys in New York. This trail was used in 1663 by a warring party of Pocumtuck Indians who invaded Mohawk territory in today's New York. Dutch settlers in Albany forged an uneasy peace between the sides, but when Mohawk Chief Saheda was murdered on the trail en route to signing the treaty, the enraged Mohawks retaliated by killing all the Pocumtuck warriors and thus eradicating the tribe.

Later pioneers traversed the Mohawk Trail from the Massachusetts Bay Colony to the Dutch settlements in New York. Their trail grew into a wagon route and then the toll-free Shunpike Road. The Mohawk Trail highway opened on September 1, 1914, and was the first designated scenic auto route in the United States.

The highway continues west, leaving the Deerfield River and entering a narrow gorge carved by the Cold River through Mohawk Trail State Forest. The 6,457-acre forest, straddling river and highway, adjoins 10,500-acre Savoy Mountain State Forest to the west, forming the largest slice of undeveloped land in Massachusetts. A mile into the park is a fifty-six-site campground on the north side of the river. Several hiking trails also begin here. The highway follows the narrowing valley, twisting alongside the river as it tumbles and pools over cobbles and boulders.

A dense canopy of trees, including maple, birch, and beech, clots the steep mountain slopes and encloses the asphalt in a green embrace. An abundant understory of azalea, raspberry, wild rose, and mountain laurel blankets the forest floor. Occasional pullouts allow access to the river for trout fishermen and photographers. The Black Brook Road twists south from the canyon and, after a couple of miles, intersects Tannery Road. It then tracks west into Savoy Mountain State Forest and a 0.5-mile, blue-blazed trail that leads to Tannery Falls. This beautiful falls, tucked into a narrow defile, cascades and drops 80 feet over cliffs and ledges to a placid pool.

After a few miles the highway leaves the Cold River Valley and begins steeply climbing northwest onto the broad, wooded flank of Hoosac Mountain. The road ascends 1,200 feet in the next couple of miles to Whitcomb Summit, the highway's 2,173-foot high point. Here, along with an inn and cottages, is a bronze elk statue and a stone tower that offers far-ranging views. To the north stretch Vermont's Green Mountains. Mount Monadnock, an isolated New Hampshire landmark, sits on the northeast horizon. The rolling Berkshire Hills unfold to the south, and Mount Greylock looms to the west.

The drive, now atop the Berkshire plateau, next runs through Florida. This small village, ironically one of the state's coldest places, was founded in 1805 just after the United States purchased Florida from Spain. To reach a great viewpoint north of the drive, go 1 mile past Whitcomb Summit. Turn north (right) on Tilda Hill Road and follow it to a sign that says "Raycroft Lookout." A one-lane track leads down to a short trail, which in turn leads to a lofty and sweeping viewpoint perched high above the Deerfield River valley.

Just up the highway is Central Shaft Road, which goes south for 4 miles to Savoy Mountain State Forest. Below the drive route is the Hoosac Railroad Tunnel, one of the great engineering feats of the nineteenth century. The 4.7-mile railroad tunnel, completed in 1873, opened an easy rail route from Boston to Albany and points west by boring through Hoosac Mountain's solid rock base. The epic construction of the tunnel, nicknamed "Bloody Pit," required twenty-four years of labor, the lives of 196 men, $15 million dollars, and the new explosive nitroglycerin.

Back on the Mohawk Trail, continue to Western Summit. Here is the third lookout tower on the route and a marvelous aerial view of Mount Greylock towering above the green valley of the Hoosic River and the patchwork quilt of farms surrounding North Adams. From the overlook the highway bends north and sharply descends from the 1,000-foot-high escarpment on the western edge of the northern Berkshire Hills. Almost 4 miles from Whitcomb Summit, the highway wheels slowly around the famed and scenic Hairpin Turn and a restaurant at its head. The road edges 3 more miles down the Hoosac Mountain wall to North Adams, the bustling commercial hub of northwestern Massachusetts.

Settled in 1737 and incorporated in 1878, North Adams has long been a busy blue-collar town with paper and textile mills along the Hoosic River. The factory town, part of the state's industrial backbone, thrived after the completion of the Hoosac Tunnel, connecting it with Boston and its port. More than 60 percent of Boston's trade came through North Adams and the tunnel by 1895, causing the town to proclaim itself "the western gateway." Most of that industry and its jobs have now passed, and the city relies on a diverse economic base. Fort Massachusetts, a frontier outpost built in 1745, sat just west of today's town and protected the area from marauding Indian attacks -- and kept Hudson River Dutch settlers from living in the area. The French and Indians torched the fort in 1746, but it was rebuilt the next year.

The drive enters North Adams, passing old brick mills and warehouses built in the nineteenth century and the tall spires of churches, including the brick St. Francis of Assisi Church. Beaver Mill, an 1833 mill on Beaver Street, is a historic landmark. The Western Gateway Heritage State Park, just south of MA 2 in the old city railroad yard, offers a glimpse into local railroad and industrial history. A large display details the construction and economic impact of the Hoosac Tunnel and includes a replica of a tunnel section complete with dripping water, the sounds of picks against stone, and the deafening explosion and flash of nitroglycerin. Other basic tools used in the tunnel's excavation are seen, including plumb bobs and sighting transits. Amazingly, when the two ends of the almost 5-mile tunnel met midmountain, the alignment error was less than 1 inch. The museum is housed in old railroad buildings and surrounded by renovated shops and restaurants.

The highway passes the North Adams downtown area and a junction with Massachusetts Highway 8. A right turn on MA 8 leads north a short distance to Natural Bridge State Park, a 48-acre parkland with a marble natural bridge arching over a narrow, 60-foot-deep chasm. The road twists through the western side of town, passing old houses with steep yards and a sprawling cemetery holding the remains of some of the Hoosac Tunnel fatalities.

Look for Notch Road on the edge of town, which is the turnoff for this scenic drive's summit side trip. Turn south (left) on the road and work uphill through houses. The road quickly leaves town and begins a meandering, 9-mile course up the north and west flank of Mount Greylock, the 3,491-foot rooftop of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.

Greylock is a magnificent mountain standing high and aloof over verdant river valleys and towns that skirt its wooded slopes. The isolated peak, separated from the Berkshire Hills by the Hoosac Valley, sits on the east edge of the narrow Taconic Mountains. This distinct range runs along the New York border from northern Connecticut to the midsection of Vermont. The centerpiece of the 11,500-acre Mount Greylock State Reservation, the mountain has its own climate because of its height and exposure. Fog and clouds often shroud its windy summit, while heavy rain and snow storms sweep across its wooded slopes.

The road to the top is hemmed in by hardwood forest and climbs steeply. Occasional glades of grass and wildflowers break the woods. After a mile the road enters the park and passes through a beautiful forest of birch floored with ferns. A drive up Mount Greylock is like a telescoped journey to northern Canada's boreal forests. The woodland is initially composed of the northern hardwoods, including yellow and paper birches, and American beech with some hemlock and white pine. Mountain maple, ash, and small shrubs grow higher, above the 3,000-foot level. And finally, near the summit, is the taiga conifer forest of red spruce and balsam fir.

As the narrow lane works its way upward, you may get glimpses of the lower mountains and valleys between tree trunks. The road crosses the white-blazed Appalachian Trail and a day-use parking area for hikers before spiraling up to the mountaintop. A pygmy forest of windswept balsam fir, its branches flagging east away from the prevailing westerly wind, borders the road near the summit. The road emerges at last on the broad summit and a one-way loop. Paved parking areas here allow access to viewpoints, trails, Bascom Lodge, and the War Memorial Tower. The stone lodge, built in 1937, welcomes overnight visitors and hikers. The 92-foot War Memorial Tower, honoring the state's men killed in wars, pokes high above the summit plateau. A clear day offers a startling view of five states.

A road continues south from the top, dropping 2 miles to a 35-site campground and 7 miles to the park visitor center. The reservation comprises more than 35 miles of trails, including an 11-mile segment of the long-distance Appalachian Trail. This drive section is open only from May through October, depending on snowfall and snowmelt.

To continue the main scenic drive, return back down Notch Road to MA 2 in North Adams and turn west (left). The last section of the drive runs 4 miles from North Adams to the colonial village of Williamstown. The highway passes through the western outskirts of North Adams, a strip of houses, an old mill, and factory outlets. Outside town it rolls across the broad Hoosac Valley and enters Williamstown, the ideal New England college town and home of prestigious Williams College.

The college is the cultural center of western Massachusetts with two excellent art museums. The free Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute is one of the best small museums in the entire United States, with an extraordinary collection that rivals most big-city museums. The institute harbors the nation's largest collection of nineteenth-century French paintings, including eight works by Corot, eight by Monet, and thirty by Renoir. Medieval works include the exquisite Virgin and Child Enthroned with Four Angels by Piero della Francesca. The American canvas collection boasts a dozen works by John Singer Sargent as well as work by Frederic Remington, Mary Cassatt, John Kensett, and ten paintings by renowned Maine artist Winslow Homer. The diverse collection came to Williamstown in the 1950s after the Clarks felt that the town and their art would be safe in the event of nuclear war. Nearby is the Williams College Museum of Art, another free museum, with a permanent collection of some eleven thousand pieces.

The Williamstown village green, surrounded by the college buildings, is the end point of this scenic drive. It is a good place to park and roam around town. A nearby tourist office can provide maps and brochures. On Main Street is a 1753 house, built to the original zoning specifications for settling in West Hoosuck and constructed with the period tools and materials. The Williamstown Theatre Festival, one of New England's great summer theaters, offers almost 250 performances every July and August in the 521-seat Adams Memorial Theater. West of town is Taconic Trail State Park and the college's Hopkins Memorial Forest, a 2,000-acre nature reserve laced with trails. The Hoosic River offers both canoeing and fishing opportunities. To connect up with the Berkshire Hills Scenic Drive to the south (see Scenic Drive 7), head out of Williamstown on U.S. Highway 7 and follow this scenic road south to Pittsfield.

For more information: Mohawk Trail Association; Franklin County Chamber of Commerce; Shelburne Falls Village Info Center; Adams Chamber of Commerce; Williamstown Tourist Board.

Click on the link below to go to a map.  The is the beginning of the road in Orange.  You can click on the map to move west and follow the road to Williamstown.

Mohawk Trail (Route 2)