Massachusetts, Mount Greylock (3,491 feet)

P1060321

Trip Schedule

After we survived Connecticut, we hopped in the car en route to Mt. Greylock.

Getting Myself In Trouble

You know that book The Five Languages of Love?  Well, my love language is trash talk.  If you can’t give or take trash talk, you can’t be friends with me.  With Massachusetts being my home state, it wasn’t a surprise that I started the trash talk about the superiority of Mt. Greylock, the Massachusetts highpoint early.  The only issue was, I had never been anywhere near it, so I had very little idea of what it looked like.  I was a little worried it would be a dud, but I figured that if Mt. Greylock served as inspiration for the likes of  Nathaniel Hawthorne, William Cullen Bryant, Oliver Wendell Holmes, Herman Melville, and Henry David Thoreau, it would probably impress.

Spoiler Alert: It Was Awesome

Date of hike: August 9, 2014
Distance: Drive up, but if you feel like hiking you can set your own distance on the AT
Time on trail: Varies

Mount Greylock is part of the Mount Greylock State Reservation, and has a paved road to the top.  You can pay $4 to park at the very top, but we parked for free .4 miles below the summit and walked up a portion of the AT.  The trail was lovely, shaded, and balsam pine scented.  Things were going well.  When the trail ended at a set of compostable toilets, I knew at least Raina would be happy.  Then we walked just a bit more and saw the summit, and I knew everything was going to be okay.

DSCN5271

Hiking up Greylock

DSCN5270

Option #1 or, better yet, use the flushing toilets in the lodge

P1060320

The Massachusetts Veterans War Memorial Tower at the summit of Mt. Greylock

 

P1060323

It is possible to see into five states from the summit: Massachusetts, New York, Connecticut, Vermont, and New Hampshire.

 

DSCN5279

The Veterans War Memorial Tower didn’t disappoint, but there was a fly in the ointment.  We weren’t sure of the exact highpoint so we began to hunt for a USGS marker.  We asked some frat boys to interrupt their whiffle ball game and help us, but they may have misunderstood what we meant by “high point”.  We asked at the lodge and they directed us to a point half way between the topographical map and the tower.  We looked everywhere, and found several quotes by Henry David Thoreau carved into rocks, but no USGS marker.  Finally we gave up and hiked back to the car to consult Don Holmes.  Don Holmes said there was no USGS marker.  We never did find out what the exact highpoint was, but we searched so thoroughly I’m sure we walked over it at some point.

CT vs MA

To The Next Mountain!

DSCN5285

Descending Greylock

Another highpoint under our belts, we said goodbye to Rachel and headed to Bennington, Vermont for the night.  Bennington made for a pleasant place to eat Italian food, and wander around looking for moose and covered bridges.  It was just what we needed after a fun, but tiring day of mountains, iced coffee, and air travel.

P1060325

Wild flowers at the summit of Mt. Greylock

You may also like...

1 Response

  1. Mao Barie says:

    Thank you so much for your time in developing this informative post.