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A vintage linen-texture postcard showing the Cold River winding through the Mohawk Trail State Forest gorge — the curving two-lane road of Route 2 in the lower left with a white guardrail, a line of evergreens and autumn-tinted hardwoods rising on the riverbank, the rocky shallow river running over boulders down the center, more wooded slopes climbing on the right, and the rounded blue silhouette of a Berkshire ridge on the far horizon under a pale sky.
Outdoors · Park
Along Cold River, Mohawk Trail, Mass. Postcard by Tichnor Brothers, ca. 1930–1945, from the Boston Public Library, source, public domain.

Mohawk Trail State Forest

Charlemont, Franklin County

Category
Park
Town
Charlemont
County
Franklin
Difficulty
Moderate

Mohawk Trail State Forest is a large DCR forest in the northern Berkshire foothills, straddling Route 2 (the Mohawk Trail itself) as it climbs west out of Charlemont into Hawley and on into Savoy. DCR describes the forest as roughly 6,000 acres of steep wooded ridges, the Cold River gorge running west to east along Route 2, the Deerfield River along the south boundary, a riverside campground, and some of the tallest and oldest white pines in New England.

The old-growth pines

The forest’s signature feature is its old-growth eastern white pine. A few hundred acres on the steep north-facing slopes above the Cold and Deerfield rivers escaped colonial-era logging, and the trees there are unusually tall: more than a hundred individual pines have been measured at over 150 feet, and the tallest few break 165 feet, among the tallest documented white pines in the Northeast.

Several stands have been named in cooperation with the Mohawk Nation: the Trees of Peace grove, the Elders Grove, and named individual trees including the Jake Swamp Pine and the Saheda. The white pine is, in many Iroquois traditions, the Tree of Peace. The named groves are reached by trail from the campground area; they are not signed from the road, and the locations are kept low-key on purpose. Stay on trails. The hillsides are steep and the duff layer around the big trees is fragile.

Trails

  • Mahican-Mohawk Trail: a long-distance footpath that follows the Deerfield and Cold rivers across northern Massachusetts, passing through MTSF on its way between the Connecticut River and the Berkshires. Inside the forest the trail climbs the Todd-Clark Ridge on the north side of the Cold River and runs past the old-growth pine stands.
  • Indian Trail: a steep climb from the campground area up the ridge to an overlook of the Deerfield River valley.
  • Todd Mountain and Clark Mountain: the ridge walk above the Cold River; an out-and-back from the campground reaches the Todd summit in about a mile and a half of climbing, with views east toward Charlemont.

Camping and the Cold River

The DCR campground at the forest’s main entrance has 53 wooded campsites along the Cold River, plus six overnight log cabins. The river is small, cold, and rocky, good for trout-fishing in the deeper pools (Massachusetts license required), and pleasant to wade in on a hot afternoon. The campground is typically open from mid-May through mid-October; reservations are required through the state park reservation system.

The Deerfield River along the south edge of the forest is the larger river: bigger water, popular with fly fishers and with the commercial whitewater outfitters that run trips out of Charlemont.

What to know

  • The big road is the trailhead. Route 2 cuts straight through the forest along the Cold River; most of the parking is roadside pull-offs and the campground lot. Watch for trucks. Route 2 is the through route across the northern Berkshires.
  • Bears, moose, bobcats: this is some of the wildest country in the central highlands. Don’t leave food out at the campsites.
  • Fall foliage: the gorge between Charlemont and the Berkshire line is one of the classic Mohawk Trail leaf-peeping stretches; expect crowded pull-offs and slow Route 2 traffic on October weekends.
  • The named pines: please don’t tree-bag the Jake Swamp Pine or the Saheda. They are visited respectfully, on the trails, and not climbed or carved.
  • Cabins: pets are prohibited from the rental cabins.

Sources