On our way home from Mt. Greylock we decided to revisit Jacob's Ladder Trail, a road we previously filmed during our visit to the Ice Glen Trail and Goldmine Brook Falls.
This video was recorded over the course of two trips, during both Spring and Summer
The Ice Glen Trail is located in the south western section of the Berkshires. This famous area of Massachusetts was recommended to me by the internet but it turns out one of my students grew up here and said we have to return in the winter as the trail becomes truly wild! Note that there are two entrances to the trail!
GPS directed us to the northern parking area which is located on a residential road and then requires you to hike up someone's driveway. The other parking lot is the main entrance but this has the benefit of leaving you directly AT the Ice Glen itself, where as the other lot starts you further away.
The Ice Glen itself is a Glacial Ravine full of boulders to climb over with a significant temperature difference from the surrounding area. While it is small and takes little over 10 minutes to traverse, the experience is well worth the trip. It reminds me of our hiking experiences at much larger parks and is beloved by locals with the trail being quite busy during our visit.
At the end of the section, or the beginning if you're going the "correct" direction, is the original trail sign carved into a glacial boulder on the right side of the trail! Just be careful, the area is quite damp and slippery and we witnessed one gentleman who fell into a small ravine off some boulders and hurt himself.
In the middle of the park is a fork that also heads up to Laura's lookout tower. This will extend your hike to a comfortable adventure and is the only elevation gain here. A moderately steep climb that took us about 20 minutes led to a rusty steel tower that Nina had no interest in trying to climb. Those stairs are more like a real ladder and did not make me feel comfortable, but the view was worth it!
At the top is a bronze sundial like map showing the locations of things you can see along with their elevations. I highly suspect that when this tower was first built the surrounding area may have been clear cut as the dial provides landmarks in a full 360 degree view but these days you can only really see north and north west.
A trip to the Ice Glen trail is too quick on it's own and should really include climbing to Laura's tower to really round out the adventure!
Mt Greylock, MA's highest point, can be view from the top of Laura's Tower
Also located on our way home from Mt Greylock is Jacob's Ladder Trail. Another Scenic byway in the beautiful western MA area. There are two notable Waterfalls we choose to visit. The second one we visited this summer at the start of a major drought. The Sanderson Brook falls looked incredible online and were packed the first time we passed it's parking lot in the spring. Unfortunately by the time we arrived it was mostly dried up!
The trail itself can be describe as mostly a walk of about a mile, up a gravel trail with a slight incline. The very end has you scramble over some rocks for an ideal view of the waterfalls drops but is mostly optional. This is a family friendly hike and looks gorgeous in the spring.
I will note that when we visited we discovered a large amount of gnats and other flying insects. I'm not sure if it's just our timing but other online reviews mentioned this as well. It might possibly be the most gnat infested hike we've ever done and we spent most of the time trying to out hike them. We found a reprieve at the waterfall itself though, with no gnats there!
Although it's much harder to locate, the Goldmine Brook falls was much more impressive than Sanderson Brook falls... it may help that we visited here in the spring on our initial drive through. In order to find it you can use GPS to locate the Brook, and then across the street is a large pullover with room for at least 20 cars. Don't go down towards the train tracks, instead cross the road and find a steep entrance through the trees and bushes. This stands out but is located right next to the guard rail with the yellow warning color.
There isn't a formal trail but the land is walked on enough to be easily navigated. Just walk up to the side of the cliff where the brook is and follow it up stream to find the waterfalls. From a distance you can view the triple drop but up close you will only see the middle fall. The sound of the water was very loud and echoed through the area so you won't miss it.
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