Hampden County motor tour!

In the days of my long ago youth, a good friend who was MUCH older than myself, mentioned taking a motor tour at the Norcross Sanctuary in Hampden County. Along this tour was a location called Tunket Cave, which was the correct name of a site given in Clay Perry's renown books on New England caves. Perry had mistakenly labeled it Plunkett Cave but my friend mentioned tunket alluded to the sound of a counterfeiting operation that operated in the vicinity long ago.

Somewhere around 20 years ago, I visited the property finding out the motor tours had been discontinued. Flash forward to present day, and they once again exist! So after seeing them advertised for at least several years, I finally got myself booked in. It is an extremely jam packed hour and a half (or slightly more) with all sorts of botanical and other natural science information. The history of the area is also covered to a large degree. Who settled the area. Who lived there. Anecdotes of their lives.

A close up Tunket Cave (this is the correct spelling) was not ensued due to it being inhabited by a number of porcupines. But our illustrious guide provided another possible origin to the name "tunket". It apparently is also a synonym for "Hell".

"Jacob's" Boulder

After the tour, I tried to revisit nearby Cat Rocks. It had been 17 years since my last trip there. Unfortunately, like with so many areas, access was posted with the well known "No Trespassing" signage. But on the way home, back in Hampshire County, I waded through the Westfield River in search of a massive boulder brought to my attention by a friend. It IS a big one! Among the largest in all of Western Massachusetts.

The Catskills!

This was a long awaited return to the Catskills with Great Barrington's Gary L. After our late winter trip (with many of the park's gates closed) we desired to seek out a number of the famous rocks that can be found in the vicinity of South Mountain and the old Mountain House site.

Dinosaur Rock

A little poking around got us to Alligator and Dinosaur Rock. The former is an oft photographed formation with many old images from the Golden Age of postcards. Afterwards, more poking around brought us to a spectacular vista at the former location of the Mountain House. We tracked down a rock that General William Tecumseh Sherman posed by - with family - likely during the late 1880s. Then it was back up to the Mountain House site for an invigorating walk along the precipice that forms the eastern perimeter of South Mountain. Here a number of Victorian and Gilded Ade attractions can be found. We located Boot Jack and Bowlder Rock.

Bowlder Rock (occasionally: Rip's - or Rip Van Winkle's - Rock)

After a much delayed lunch, we wound our way back through Windham with an eye towards locating Cabin Rock. Then rolled back through Catskill once again, passing by the site of Road Cut Cave (looks like a demolished entrance) which I explored MANY years ago during my youthful days.

The Southern Berkshires and Connecticut

This is the time of the year when I look around and focus on exactly where I wish to put the limited time remaining before the usual 'winter hibernation' sets in. I've wanted to return to Abiel's Rock, and I had a couple leads tossed my way by a northern Connecticut man.

But my first stop was to check into a lead given me by Great Barrington's Gary L. Someone had mentioned a boulder to him that this individual knew LONG ago. Like 50 years plus! This did not pan out as no boulder turned up in my search.

Tipping Rock

The next stop was pure magic! I had been given GPS information on the 'lost' Tipping Rock of Sandisfield. It also was originally photographed by Winsted Connecticut's F.W. DeMars during the early 1900s. This was located without too much difficulty, so it allowed me enough time to take on a steep climb in adjacent Colebrook CT. This was in search of another 'lost' formation: the Pulpit Rock, also photographed (or brought into his collection through a purchase) by DeMars. Although an impressive boulder was located (once again due to my CT contact) I did not see it matching the old DeMars photo.

Boulder at Colebrook

On the return home, I once again scouted out South County's Abiel's Rock . One of the largest boulders in Berkshire County.