At the top of Mount Greylock you can stand on the highest point in Massachusetts, 3,491 feet above sea level — with a lighthouse at your shoulder. On a clear day you can out look across 90 miles and three states.
And you can hear voices in many languages, as families share picnics and look out over the tops of the spruce trees. After a half-day hike up the mountain on quiet trails you can come out into a cheerful crowd who have converged here from many parts of the world.
The lighthouse was dedicated as a World War I Memorial in 1932, about the same time the Works Progress Administration build a cedar shake and timber-frame resting place across the meadow.
Bascom Lodge is open from May to October, like the road up to the summit. In the warmer half of the year you can drive up for a three-course dinner and jazz on the terrace — or on the right summer night, bagpipers at sunset. Naturalists give talks on native birds and mushrooms, and yoga classes meet outdoors even on fall afternoons. (The road and the lodge are closed in winter.)
Hiking trails converge here, some short scrambles and some coming up from the valley. Most will meet the Appalachian Trail heading north and follow it the last half mile to the top, through evergreens and along the shore of a high pond.
