A panoramic view of a location along the Mohawk Trail is available here.
Guidebooks repeatedly classify it as the nation's first scenic "auto route." While that may be a somewhat tarnished distinction at the end of the Age of Oil, there is no doubt about the scenic part. The Mohawk Trail, the best roadway in the Valley, travels over hill and dale through some of the most stunningly beautiful country in America.
The 63-mile stretch of Route 2 from Millers Falls to the New York border will tickle a nostalgic nerve in anyone who remembers or imagines what New England highways used to look like. The section heading west from the rotary off Interstate 91 in Greenfield to the Hairpin Turn in Florida carves its way over hills and down into the Deerfield River valley before rising again in Charlemont and Savoy, where it follows the Cold River up into Florida. In addition to providing a spine to a vast network of country roads, paved and unpaved, leading off the beaten path to places like Shelburne Falls, Colrain, Buckland, Heath, West Hawley, Drury and Monroe, as well as into more than 50,000 acres of state forest land, the Mohawk Trail offers a layered view of the history of the region.
Following an ancient Native American route from the Connecticut River to the Hudson River, the Mohawk Trail's pre-Revolutionary War period is still evident in old cemeteries and the sites of early homes, farms and fortresses. But for many travelers, it's the nearer history of the early to middle-20th century that gives the roadway its appeal. Widened, paved and designated specifically for auto touring in 1914, the Mohawk Trail peaked as a tourist destination in the 1950s, when it was dotted with trading posts, campgrounds, motor courts and restaurants. With the opening of the MassPike, which dramatically changed tourism patterns, the Mohawk faded but never disappeared. Its resurgence in recent years has been a seemingly organic process, as old inns, general stores, sugar houses, trinket shops and campgrounds spruced themselves up and were joined by new artisan galleries, coffee roasters and retail shops. Sustained by the steady influx of skiers, kayakers, anglers, hunters, hikers, campers and every other sort of outdoor enthusiast, the Mohawk Trail seems to be just enough out of the way to avoid being spoiled by its own success.
