You can sit on the terrace on a summer night with Rodin and Renoir behind you and look out over the reflecting pool to cows in the pasture at The Clark Art Institute.
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Williamstown, MA
On the right weekend in June, the azaleas bloom above Berry pond — acres of azaleas. They fill the hillside with pink petals and light scent and a hum of bees. Head up through Pittsfield State Forest to the top of the rise, and the road climbs out of the woods to look out across New York State, and the bushes grow wild.
We have life and beauty here. Plants and animals thrive in the Berkshires, sometimes where you expect them and sometimes where you don’t. Moose walk on the highest ridges, and black bear forage at dusk. Some of our neighbors are shy, and finding them may take a trip into the back country. Some live closer by — driving with the windows down, you may turn a corner and wait for a porcupine to amble up the shoulder of the road.
And some of the marvels are closer to home, even if you haven’t seen them before. Under a hand lens, a leaf holds jade-green butterfly eggs. Bobolinks nest in tall grass, and when they bob up to look out, the tops of their heads show bright yellow. Naturalists lead guided walks to share our woods and fields, and sometimes you head up an old trail and find a flash of life by sheer luck.
Come outdoors
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Berkshire Botanical Garden
Stockbridge, MA
In a quiet corner of Stockbridge, the Berkshire Botanical Garden has cared for 20 acres of land since 1934. The gardens open to visitors from May to early October, with art exhibits, talks and events, classes and workshops year-round.
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Berkshire Museum
Pittsfield, MA
The Berkshire Museum covers a lot of ground — local history and natural history, science and art. It has stood at the center of the county for more than 100 years.
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Chesterwood
In a studio with tall windows letting in the north light, Daniel Chester French created the figure of Abraham Lincoln for the Lincoln Memorial in Washington D.C. Today contemporary sculpture lines the paths and gardens in the summer and fall.
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Field Farm
Williamstown, MA
Nature and Modern art mingle at Field Farm in Williamstown. The Trustees of Reservations maintains the outoor sculpture garden and trails— open to the public from sunrise to sunset all year — and will open the Folly for art tours occasionally.
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The Mount
Edith Wharton, the first woman to win the Pulitzer Prize, wrote many of her best-known novels in this house, in the 10 years she lived in Lenox — from The House of Mirth to Ethan Frome. Her house is now a museum, a center of writing, music and performance, landscape and gardens, dedicated to keeping her spirit alive.
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Bartholomew’s Cobble
Sheffield, MA
A rare outcrop of quartzite and marble along the Housatonic River nurtures more than 800 kinds of plants. Bartholomew’s Cobble shelters one of the greatest diversities of ferns in North America and as many as 50 varieties of wildflowers.
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Canoe Meadows
Mass Audubon, the statewide conservation nonprofit, protects four wildlife sanctuaries in the Central and Southern Berkshires. At Canoe Meadows in Pittsfield, flat and easy trails wander along the Housatonic River, sheltering migrating birds and butterflies in the meadow, and otters and turtles along the water (and now and then a bear).
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Mountain Meadow
Williamstown, MA
On the border of Williamstown and Vermont, trails cross a high meadow and 180 acres of forests and fields and wetlands, with a wide view across the valley.
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Hopkins Forest
Williamstown, MA
Williams College preserves the Hopkins Memorial Forest, 2600 acres in Massachusetts, New York and Vermont, bordering on Williamstown Rural Lands and the Taconic Crest Trail.
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Chestnut Trail
Williamstown, MA
An unobtrusive trailhead on Chestnut Street in Williamstown heads gently up hill toward the ridge, through hardwood forest.
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Nutwood Farm
Cummington, MA
Seva and Kaylan Water are growing hazelnuts at their farm in cummington. Hazelnuts are not yet for sale at the farm (in part because husking them is still a process by hand), but the farmers hold harvest days in the fall.
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Pine Cobble
Williamstown, MA
Uphill from the Hoosic River, a trail climbs up gradually to the top of the ridge and an open stretch of rock with a wide view over Williamstown and North Adams.
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Forge Project
Taghkanic, NY
A new collaboration celebrates Native and Indigenous communities across the Americas and builds relationships through the land and local food, arts and conversations, activism and more.
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Old Mill Trail
Hinsdale, MA
The flat and gentle pathway of the Old Mill trail wanders along the river in Hinsdale, just off Route 8 heading south from Dalton.
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Azalea Fields
Pittsfield State Forest on the Taconic ridge has many claims to fame — Balance Rock, and Berry Pond, the highest natural body of water in Massachusetts, and 30 miles of trails.
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Moon in the Pond Farm
Sheffield, MA
Dominic Palumbo raises Highland cattle, Jersey geese, Dorset sheep and other heritage breeds, as he grows vegetables and forages for local flavors and aromatics.
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Bash Bish Falls
Copake, NY
Bash Bish Falls State Park surrounds the highest waterfall in Massachusetts, where the water drops about 80 feet into a deep green plunge pool.
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Mount Greylock
Adams, MA
The highest park in the state, and the oldest, Mount Greylock has held its own legends long before J.K. Rowling named it the site of the oldest wizarding school in North America.
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Helia Native Nursery
West Stockbridge, MA
Horticulturalist Bridghe McCracken founded Helia Native Nursery three years ago to save Berkshire native plants and seeds, to grow native plants and to work with gardeners and landscapers to restore the Berkshire ecosystem.
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Whitney’s Farm Market
From spring to fall, Whitney’s Farm Market on Route 8 is open with greens, fruits and vegetables, pick-your-own berries in season, deli sandwiches and ice cream, and the garden center carries perennial and annual flowers and more.
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Hilltop Orchards
At Hilltop Orchards, the Vittori family grow apples and make cider and wine on 200 acres. A brother and sister, John and Wendy, bought the orchard more than 30 years ago and preserved the land. They have a farm store and trails open year-round.
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Dream Away Lodge
Becket, MA
The Dream Away Lodge is a road house, a locally sourced restaurant, a lounge and a labyrinth … its a 200-year-old farmhouse on the edge of October Mountain State Forest in Becket, and it has been a center of live music for decades.
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Tracy Brook
Richmond, MA
In early June, the herons are nesting. Mass Audubon protects one of the largest blue heronries in the county at one of the newest sanctuaries, a wetland and woodland on Tracy Brook in Richmond. It has no marked trails, but guided walks explore the area.
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Pleasant Valley
Mass Audubon, the statewide conservation nonprofit, protects four wildlife sanctuaries in the Central and Southern Berkshires. At Pleasant Valley in Lenox, their local headquarters lead into a boardwalk around a beaver pond and trails climb the slopes of Lenox Mountain.
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