Outdoors · County
Outdoor places in Hampshire County across the Pioneer Valley.
A 751-acre Mass Audubon sanctuary on the Connecticut River oxbow in Easthampton and Northampton, with four miles of flat trails through marsh, meadow, and floodplain forest.
Easthampton · 4 mi · Easy
A 70-foot granite gorge cut by the East Branch of the Westfield River. A Trustees of Reservations property with a short cliff-edge overlook and a long riverside trail.
Chesterfield · Easy
A 1,048-acre state park strung along twelve miles of Connecticut River shoreline in eight discontinuous parcels, from Northfield down to Chicopee. The river's main public boat-launch and paddle-access network in Massachusetts.
Northampton
A 1,728-acre hilltown forest in Goshen and Ashfield, given to the Commonwealth in 1929 by the Daughters of the American Revolution. Upper and Lower Highland Lakes, a fire tower on Moore's Hill, a 51-site campground, and about fifteen miles of multi-use trails.
Goshen · Easy
Northampton's largest conservation area. 936 acres around a 40-acre artificial lake, with boardwalks through wetland, a quiet beaver-pond loop, and nearly 10 miles of trails.
Northampton · 10 mi · Easy
A long, cascading waterfall on Glendale Brook in the hilltown of Middlefield. A Trustees of Reservations property with a short trail from the road to a viewing area beside one of the most powerful runs of falling water in Massachusetts.
Middlefield · 0.4 mi · Easy
A 200-million-year-old trap-rock ridge running east–west across the Pioneer Valley, with Mount Norwottuck at the center, the Notch on Route 116, the Horse Caves below the summit, and the New England Trail crossing the high ground.
Amherst · 8 mi · Moderate
An 843-acre state park on the western end of the Holyoke Range, donated to the Commonwealth in 1940. Mount Holyoke summit and the historic Summit House at the top, an auto road up the Hadley side, and meadows and ponds at the base.
Hadley · 3 mi · Moderate
A US Army Corps of Engineers flood-control dam on the East Branch of the Westfield River in Huntington, completed in 1941. The basin is normally dry; the surrounding recreation area offers multi-use trails, picnic areas, river access, and big seasonal moods.
Huntington · 4 mi · Easy
A 6-mile paved rail trail from Southampton through Easthampton to the Connecticut River, with the 2017 tunnel connection into Northampton linking it to the wider valley network.
Easthampton · 6 mi · Easy
The eastern Pioneer Valley reach of the long-running Mass Central Rail Trail. A patchwork of paved and stone-dust segments through Belchertown and Ware along the former Boston & Maine "Central Mass" line.
Belchertown · 7 mi · Easy
An 11-mile paved rail trail from Northampton through Hadley and Amherst to Belchertown. Flat, family-friendly, and usable year-round.
Northampton · 11 mi · Easy
The public-access portion of the Quabbin Reservoir watershed in Belchertown. About 3,000 acres of woods, an auto loop, the Winsor Dam, the Enfield Lookout, and Quabbin Hill, all wrapped around Boston's drinking-water reservoir.
Belchertown · 6 mi · Easy
A 1.2-mile universal-access loop through Connecticut River floodplain meadow and oak woodland, and one of the few fully wheelchair-accessible nature trails in Western Mass.
Hadley · 1.2 mi · Easy
The southwestern Pioneer Valley's major river system, draining the Berkshire foothills through three branches that total 78 miles of federally designated Wild and Scenic water, the first such designation in Massachusetts.
Huntington · Moderate