200 million years ago the drifting apart of the great land masses created fault lines where volcanic activity was prevalent. One of these faults developed in what is now known as the Pioneer Valley region in the Connecticut River Valley area.

The remains of this activity can be seen in the Mount Tom Range and Holyoke Range near Holyoke, Massachusetts.

Over a span of 20 million years huge amounts of lava flowed out of the faults and cooled to create what we call today Traprock or Basalt. The Traprock mixed with sediments and was turned on its side.

Over the millions of years since those events erosion has occurred washing away the softer sediment but leaving the resistant Traprock and creating towering cliffs that have attracted geologists to this remarkable location in New England.

These are not huge mountains by any stretch of the imagination. Most are under 1,000-feet, with Mount Tom being the high point at 1,200-feet.

However, they make excellent hiking treks for those just out for a day, or preparing for some of the giants in the White Mountain Range. And this was my reason for visiting Mount Tom last weekend with one of my sons.

My son and I are preparing to climb Mount Washington in late August. We have climbed it before and know its demands and wanted to gauge our current fitness and preparation. Climbing Mount Tom provided a pleasing and moderate hike.

There are a number of trails to the summit of Mount Tom but we chose to hike on the Metacomet-Monadnock Trail - also known as the M&M Trail. This trail is a long distance trail running 119-miles from the Connecticut Border to Mount Monadnock in Southern New Hampshire. The trail runs the ridge line over the Mount Tom and Holyoke Ranges.

The Mount Tom portion of the M&M Trail is considered one of the more scenic as the Basalt Cliffs are most dramatic here and provide outstanding views of the Berkshires and towns to the west and panoramas across the Connecticut River Valley. It also provides the opportunity to marvel at the various Raptors that migrate and nest in the cliffs.

We were not disappointed with either.

Our hike along the M&M first took us to the summit of Goat Peak at 822-feet. This is a vertical climb of only 500-feet over 1.4-miles, but provides some stunning views of the surrounding towns from the tower at the summit. This is a short hike from the parking lots down near the Stone House visitor center about 1.5 miles from the park gate.

We then retraced out steps back to the parking lot and took the M&M Trail heading south to ascend Mount Tom.

According to the trail map this is a 4-mile round trip hike, but you’ll not be able to convince my son of that figure. He felt it was much longer based on the time it took us.

The beginning part of the trail ascends through the woods at the base of Mount Tom but then quickly provides open vistas on the Basalt Cliffs as it begins to hug a path that keeps you close to the cliff line, and occasionally taking you into the woods around non-navigable cliffs.

The views of the Cliffs are breathtaking and it seems as you get close to the summit, the views just keep getting better.

Basalt has two striking features. It contains a lot of iron, which as it’s exposed to air turns a reddish-brown color, and when it fractures it tends to create octagonal and pentagonal columns or pillars. These two features make for many interesting photo and video shoots.

So our ascent took us a lot longer because of all the stops we made. This made the hike to the summit seem much longer but we were not in a hurry and I would suggest if you use the M&M Trail you allow 3-4 hours for the out and back trip.

We did see raptors on our ascent - at one point there were three airborne gliding on the drafts around the cliffs. It was truly amazing to see, and one of the memories of the hike we took away.

The summit is basically just a place for radio towers and satellite dishes now. There used to be a ski resort here but it’s closed now.

It’s not the prettiest summit in New England but on a clear day provides outstanding views of the Berkshire Hills to the west. We climbed on a cloudy and hazy day so our views were limited.

This is not a difficult hike but the trail in some areas is not well marked. We went off-trail a number of times and had to backtrack to find it again. The trail is marked with a white blaze to signify the M&M Trail, and sometimes it is on trees but faded and other times on rock at your feet.

The other thing to consider about this trail on Mount Tom is that it does hug the cliff line closely in the second-half of the climb and may not be suitable for young children or people who become nervous or anxious when walking along sheer drops of hundreds of feet.

The hiking guide we had suggested the round trip we took - we came back down using the M&M Trail as well - would be about 2.5 hours, but we were out on the trail closer to 3.5 - 4 hours.

Take plenty of water as there are no sources on the trail or at the summit, and of course bug spray, and watch out for deer ticks as they are a problem in this region.

This is a great day hike in the Pioneer Valley and provides a rare instance in this region to walk along a volcanic ridgeline to see some geological wonders… and if you’re lucky some raptors out hunting for lunch.

For more suggestions and ideas for the region see the Massachusetts destination section of our web site by clicking here.

There’ll be more attractions to visit in New England posted here every week so bookmark the page and return or make it easy on yourself and just subscribe to my RSS feed by clicking here.

Cliff Calderwood
Publisher
New England Travel Online Guide

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