Hiking - Savoy Mountain State Forest, MA

With temps near 70, no humidity, and breezy conditions to keep the bugs away, Holly and I wanted to get out hiking today. It needed to be relatively nearby, not too ambitious, and someplace we'd never been, a tall order since we do a lot of these. Nearby Massachusetts has many state forests in the western part of the state, in the Berkshires, and we've only begun to scratch the surface, so that's where we went, less than 2 hours from home.

Today, we went to Savoy Mountain State Forest, where we first climbed Spruce Hill, about a mile and a half away and 700 feet above us. It was a pretty easy hike, and we reached the summit in under an hour.



Mount Greylock, the highest point in Massachusetts at 3491', loomed in the southwest.



To the northeast, we looked down on North Adams, Williamstown, and the Taconic Range on the New York border in the distance.



After having lunch and taking in the views on the cool windy summit, we headed back down to the car to do more exploring in other parts of the forest. On the way to Tannery Falls, we passed a turnoff on an unmaintained road to Balanced Rock. We decided to walk the half-mile rather than take the car over some pretty rough and rutted terrain. This was obviously a popular party spot.



Finally arriving at the parking area for Tannery Falls, we had no idea what to expect. The trail led steeply down to the base of an exquisite 80' waterfall, running well after the heavy rains of yesterday. There were numerous smaller cascades in the gorge along the way, as well as the smaller and narrower Parker Brook Falls (60') just off the main trail.



It was a good day, and we'd had lots of variety in our hiking. We'll definitely be exploring more of these Massachusetts state forests in the future.