ParkHampden
Ashley Reservoir
A flat 4.5-mile gravel loop around Holyoke's secondary drinking-water reservoir, with pine woods, open water views, and one of the most-used everyday running paths in the southern valley.
Holyoke · 4.5 mi · Easy
Outdoors · County
Hampden County
Outdoor places in Hampden County across the Pioneer Valley.
ParkHampden
Brimfield State Forest
A roughly 3,500-acre DCR state forest in the hills west of Brimfield Center, with the Dean Pond Recreation Area as its developed core, the glacial-erratic Steerage Rock on the old Bay Path, and over twenty miles of multi-use forest roads and trails.
Brimfield · Easy
ParkHampden
Chester-Blandford State Forest
A 2,776-acre DCR forest in the Hampden County hilltowns spanning Chester and Blandford, established in 1924. The headline attraction is Sanderson Brook Falls, a 60-foot multi-tier cascade reached by a short walk from a forest road off Route 20.
Chester · Moderate
Conservation AreaHampden
Dinosaur Footprints
An eight-acre Trustees of Reservations site on Route 5 in Holyoke where exposed sandstone bedrock preserves 200-million-year-old dinosaur trackways, visible by a short seasonal trail from a roadside turnout.
Holyoke · 0.5 mi · Easy
ParkHampden
Forest Park
Springfield's 735-acre city park, with an Olmsted-firm layout, a working zoo, a rose garden, a duck pond, and miles of walking roads and trails on the city's south side.
Springfield · Easy
ParkHampden
Granville State Forest
A 2,432-acre DCR forest in the southern Berkshire foothills of Granville and Tolland, with the Hubbard River dropping 450 feet through cascades and pools, a small primitive campground, and a network of woods-road trails.
Granville · Moderate
TrailHampden
Keystone Arches Trail
A 5-mile hike past three of the five surviving 1841 Western Railroad stone arch bridges, 70-foot dry-stone keystone arches that predate the transcontinental railroad by decades.
Chester · 5 mi · Moderate
ParkHampden
Mount Tom State Reservation
A 1,967-acre traprock ridge above the Connecticut River in Holyoke, with 22 miles of trails, Lake Bray, and a world-class fall hawk-migration lookout.
Holyoke · 22 mi · Moderate
ParkHampden
Robinson State Park
Roughly 1,025 acres along the Westfield River in Agawam, with more than 20 miles of trails through pine-oak forest and one of the larger undeveloped parks in the southern valley.
Agawam · 20 mi · Easy
ParkHampden
Stanley Park
A 300-acre private nonprofit park on the west side of Westfield, free to the public, with formal rose and rhododendron gardens, an arboretum, an Asian tea house, a covered bridge over Colonial Pond, and a 98-foot carillon tower.
Westfield · Easy
ParkHampden
Tolland State Forest
A 4,415-acre DCR forest in the southern Berkshire foothills wrapped around Otis Reservoir, a 1,065-acre lake with a boat ramp, swimming beach, and a peninsula campground that is one of the largest in the Massachusetts state forest system.
Tolland · Easy