Hiking Natural Bridge State Park in Massachusetts
Hiking Natural Bridge State Park in Massachusetts kind of caught us off guard because this my friends is a hidden gem. This adventure started off like a lot of our adventures in the past. We turn to google maps and either typed in “state park” or “hiking” and a bunch of results popped up.
We were heading up to northwest Massachusetts mainly because we wanted to go up to the top of Mount Greylock (post/video link here) but there is a lot more to do in northwest Massachusetts than we had thought. This beautiful state park kind of caught us off guard with its amazing unique natural rock sculptures carved by mother nature.
FALL HIKE
First let me back up a bit before I get ahead of myself. 🙂 We traveled to this park in late October…October 31st to be precise, so the entrance gate to the park was actually closed.
There is very limited parking towards that entrance gate mainly due to a sign that says “no parking this side”. Luckily since it was a Tuesday and off-season we had this park practically to ourselves.
HOOSIC RIVER
Just off the main gate we were welcomed by a a beautiful river called the Hoosic River and a small waterfall near the bridge. I am a sucker for waterfalls and love the sound they make (more in the video at the top of this post). Talking over them is a bit of a challenge when recording, but then again maybe that is a sure sign to just be quiet and enjoy it.
MILL SITE
After taking a stroll up the main road, we came across a trail that had a sign “Mill Site” on it. It turns out there are quite a bit of ruins of a previous mill that was in the area. A lot of the remnants are still in tact although obviously overgrown with moss. It is always fun and an enjoyable experience taking a stroll through historic grounds like these.
GIANT ROCK WITH TREES GROWING OUT OF IT!?
Right after walking through the Mill Site we came across this giant rock. It is particularly neat with how the trees have grown into its surface creating cracks with their roots. I guess it is just one of those things you have to see in person to really understand how neat this thing was.
EPIC ADVENTURE STARTS!
EPIC ADVENTURE STARTS!We were about ready to climb up some stairs when we noticed this guy just chilling on a donation container. Almost as if he was its mascot and asking for donations. Praying Mantises are such awesome looking insects. Hopefully he found a nice and safe location as winter approaches.
ROCKY BEAUTY.
It is really hard to capture how epic the main attraction of this park is. Although Deanna did an amazing job as usual taking pictures, I feel like you really have to go there to experience this portion of the park.
This isn’t quite to the scale of the grand canyon but it is still amazing how the water has slowly cut away at this rock over time forming beautiful rock structures. Also, as the name of the park states, there is a natural rock bridge that forms an arc over the stream. If you are ever up in this area of Massachusetts, definitely consider taking a glance at this gem of a park.
SUMMARY
I try to keep these posts fairly short and just stick to the information and experiences we learned along our adventure (and showcase all of Deanna’s awesome photos of course). However, if you all ever do have questions for us, feel free to ask in the comment section below or in the comment section on our YouTube videos (video at the top of the post).
My goal isn’t really to tell you every single thing about each park but to hopefully inspire you all to get out there and enjoy these for yourself. You never know what you’ll find until you go explore. 🙂
OTHER NEARBY HIKES
NOTE FROM WRITER
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Adventure On!
