BerkshireLinks.com

Berkshires parks and recreation

Cheshire Lake canoe trip, Sept. 2024

By Dave Read, Lenox, MA, Sept. 22, 2024 outing – With friends Kelley and Eddie, I splashed and paddled around lower Cheshire Lake, the section between Berkshire village and the causeway that runs between Rt. 8 and Cheshire/Lanesborough Rd. It was somewhat of a trip down cinder-strewn memory alley, since I lived next to the lake for a few wild and crazy years of the first Raygun Admin.!

It was the first day of fall, and even though our annual leaf-borne extravaganza of color remains to be seen, what came into view from the vantage point of a canoe was as subtly beautiful as what soon will explode all around us. (click an image to slide through them all)

Hancock Shaker Village, Sept. 2024

By Dave Read, Lenox, MA, Sept. 5, 2024 visit – Hancock Shaker Village stands shoulder-to-shoulder with Tanglewood in the first rank of places that must be visited on a rare trip to the Berkshires, and no less than annually if you live within a couple hour’s drive. Here’s hoping these casual phonesnaps pique your curiosity enough to make a visit.

There are docents and curators who blend right in; ask a question of two and you will learn marvelous things about the Shakers and their mode of living. A few years ago, the place hosted a fiddler’s convention – a perfect fit.

(click any images to scroll through them all)

Four hours on the Housatonic River

Four hours in a kayak paddling (and drifting!) on the celebrated Housatonic River in the Berkshires, between the Decker boat launch on New Lenox Rd. and Wood’s Pond, is as good a way to spend four hours on the Fourth of July. Oliver Wendell Holmes is credited with coining the exclamation, There’s no tonic like the Housatonic. Our marvelously meandering stream also won the affection of the great Charles Ives, who composed a piece titled, The housatonic at Stockbridge. And today I learned that some Lily Pods are pink!

Kayaker views of the Housatonic River, between New Lenox Rd. and Wood's Pond, by Dave Read.
Pink lily pods in the Housatonic River, between New Lenox Rd. and Wood’s Pond, by Dave Read.

Parks in the Berkshires

The Berkshires are a place of such pervasive natural beauty that to call it a park requires no stretch of the imagination – but it would get tangled up in the courts, so we acquiesce in parceling it out into dozens of local and state parks, each under the dominion of the majestic Mount Greylock, lord of a 1,200 acre state park under its 3,489 foot summit. The Appalachian Trail, itself a national treasure of the first rank, runs across Greylock as it weaves its way from Georgia to New Hampshire.

Parks and recreation in the Berkshires

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Where to ski in the Berkshires

Article updated Dec. 22, 2018, by Dave Conlin Read
Where to ski in the Berkshires, with map including driving directions for all snowboarding, cross-country, and downhill ski areas and resorts in the region. The 2016-17 winter skiing season in the Berkshires promises to be one of the best in recent years, thanks to the pre-Thanksgiving snowfall of Sunday Nov. 20, 2016 which depostited more than one foot of snow in the higher elevations of Berkshire county.

Berkshires snowboarding and downhill skiing

Berkshire East Ski Resort contact information

  • South River Rd. (Rte. 8A),
  • Charlemont, Mass.,
  • Vertical drop: 1,180 feet;
  • Number of trails: 45.
  • Night skiing. 413-339-6617.
  • berkshireeast.com

Ski Butternut contact information

Otis Ridge contact information

  • Rte. 23,
  • Otis, MA
  • Vertical drop: 400 feet;
  • trails: 11.
  • Night skiing.
  • 413-269-4444.
  • otisridge.com

Jiminy Peak Mountain Resort contact information

  • 37 Corey Rd.,
  • Hancock, MA
  • Vertical drop: 1,150 feet;
  • trails: 44
  • Night skiing
  • 888-454-6469, 413-738-5500
  • jiminypeak.com

Bousquet Ski Area contact information

  • 101 Dan Fox Dr.,
  • Pittsfield, MA 01201
  • Vertical drop: 750 feet;
  • trails: 21
  • Night skiing and tubing.
  • 413-442-8316.
  • bousquets.com.

Catamount Ski Area contact information

  • 3200 Rte. 23,
  • Hillsdale, NY
  • Vertical drop: 1,000 feet;
  • trails: 32
  • Night skiing
  • 518-325-3200, 413-528-1262
  • catamountski.com

Berkshires cross-country skiing

Canterbury Farm Ski Touring

Cranwell Resort, Spa and Golf Club

  • Rt. 7
  • Lenox, Mass
  • 413-637-1364
  • 10km groomed trails
  • cranwell.com

Hilltop Orchards – Cross Country Ski and Snowshoe

Notchview Reservation

  • Route 9
  • Windsor, Mass
  • 413-684-0148
  • 19 miles of ski trails
  • thetrustees.org

Pineridge Cross Country Ski

  • 1463 Plank Road
  • Petersburgh, NY 12138
  • 518-283-3652
  • 35km groomed trails
  • pineridgexc.com

How to get to the Berkshires

Here are inks for local and regional public transportation depots and stops, plus where to get Peter Pan bus and Amtrak train schedules and tickets: how to get to the Berkshires.

Berkshires cultural organizations

Berkshires cultural organizations have lost all credibility and have squandered decades of good will by acceding to the domination of something called 1berkshire, which came into being lying about funding sources and its own raison d’etre. In the wake of the great Berkshire Museum art heist, which was the year’s most written about story in the global world of art – it was condemned far and wide, 1berkshire and board member Van Sheilds garnered a billion dollars worth of bad publicity, forever despoiling the once-grand “Berkshires” brand.