Activities in Great Barrington & Around
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Bartholomew’s Cobble
After an hour or two’s rest in small-town America, you might consider a hike in the hills. Ten miles south of Great Barrington along US 7 and MA 7A toward Ashley Falls is Bartholomew’s Cobble, a ‘cobble’ being a high, rocky knoll of limestone, marble or quartzite. The highly alkaline soil of this 329-acre reservation supports an unusual variety of trees, flowers, moss and especially ferns. Six miles of hiking trails provide routes for enjoying the cobble and the woods, which are set beneath a flyway used by over 200 species of birds. Try the Ledges Trail that weaves along the Housatonic River.
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Windy Hill Farm
If you hop in the car and drive out of Great Barrington, you’re bound to find several farms where you can pick seasonal produce at harvest times, which can be overwhelmingly beautiful in the fall. One spot is Windy Hill Farm, about 5 miles north of Great Barrington, where more than a score of apple varieties, from pucker-sour to candy-sweet, are yours for the autumn picking. Summer is blueberry season.
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Monument Mountain
On US 7, less than 5 miles north of Great Barrington center, is Monument Mountain, which has two trails to the summit of Squaw Peak. Nathaniel Hawthorne wrote that Monument’s summit resembled ‘a headless sphinx wrapped in a Persian shawl.’ On August 5, 1850, Hawthorne climbed the mountain with Oliver Wendell Holmes and Herman Melville, thus sealing a lifelong friendship.
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