Mount Greylock State Reservation

Location: Lanesborough, Mass.

There's a lot of great hiking at Greylock, with trails going all over the place. We started at the campground and hiked up to the top of the mountain via the Vista trail, then came back down along part of the Appalachian trail. Later in the day we hiked out to see wreckage from a plane crash, and continued along the loop trail back to the main access road. We also hiked the self-guided nature trail that begins at the south entrance to the park.

This was a great place to come for a weekend's worth of hiking, with several points of natural and historical interest, plus fantastic views from the summit. Greylock has lots of amenities, including a lodge at the summit with food and restrooms, and a strange stone tower with a viewing platform at the top. There's a small museum and lodge at the southern entrance.

Ninigret National Wildlife Refuge

Location: Charlestown, RI

Ninigret is an old airport used during World War II for flight training. They've torn up most of the asphalt runways and taxi strips in order to promote natural reclamation, but it's still an historically interesting place as well as naturally quite beautiful.

There are crushed stone walking paths around the perimeter of the refuge, overlooking the bay and meadows full of wildflowers. As we walked out to Grassy Point we saw a group of kids wading in the bay, trying to catch some crabs or clams.

The walking here is very easy -- all the better to look at your surroundings, rather than at your feet.

The Bubbles - Acadia National Park

Location: Mount Desert Island, Maine

There are two "bubbles" -- north and south. It doesn't sound very impressive, climbing a bubble, but remember that you're starting at nearly sea level, so everything's up from there.

We parked at the carriage road parking lot nearest to the Bubbles, off the park loop road. There are lots of trails in the area, some of which lead up to the bubbles -- the free park map from the visitors center was useful.

The view south from the South Bubble is gorgeous; Jordan Pond is tucked into a valley between Pemetic and Penobscot Mountains, and further south you can see the ocean and little islands rising up through the fog.

I thought the view north from the North Bubble was even more impressive, with Eagle Lake directly below, and views of Cadillac mountain and large mountain chains further to the north. Both bubbles hosted lovely alpine flora & fauna, which seemed unusual, considering how close to the ocean they are. You could tell where Red Squirrels had stopped for a snack by the little piles of pinecone debris left along the sides of the trail.

We walked back to the parking lot via one of the carriage roads, which are very well maintained dirt/crushed stone roads that run throughout the park. The carriage roads are closed to motorized vehicles, and would be great for leisurely bike riding.

Indian Point - Blagden Preserve

Location: Mount Desert Island, Maine

This was a nice place for gentle hiking and nature viewing. They had a sign-in booth with trail maps in the parking area.

The variety and sheer amount of mosses along the woodland path were amazing. Moss and lichens covered everything -- a beautiful emerald green cushion. The trail comes out of the woods into a meadow with apple trees. They weren't quite ripe, but John knocked some down from the top of the tree that were o.k. to eat :)

They had adirondack chairs set up down by the water to watch seals lounge on the rocks, but we didn't see any when we were there. I think spring is the best time to catch the seals and their pups. We did startle some sort of chicken-like bird out from the underbrush, but we didn't get a good look at it.

Mount Desert Campground

Overall Rating (1 to 10) : 9 (for waterfront sites), 7 (for the rest of the campground)

Location: Mount Desert Island, Maine

Mount Desert is a privately owned campground, and I had a hard time swallowing the $35/night fee (and this was the off season rate), but after getting over my cheap-assedness I had to admit that we had a really awesome site. We had C15, which is right on the water (Somes Sound). The view from our tent was spectacular, particularly at sunset. This is a perfect campground for folks interesting in canoeing or kayaking -- we tied our canoe to the floating dock (which was right next to our site), so there was no need to drag the canoe in and out of the water every time we wanted to use it. This campground is all about the waterfront sites.

The downside is that the waterfront sites lacked much privacy; though beautiful, the woods had no undergrowth and we could hear every little rustle of our neighbors sleeping bags (maybe also the water added to the transmission of sound?). I felt guilty getting up in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom, since I knew everyone in the general vicinity would hear me, no matter how quiet I was. That said, it was amazingly quiet -- I can't believe how quiet it was, considering that 95% of the waterfront sites were filled. It didn't get noisy until our last day at the campground, when a family with three very loud children showed up (people with kids, take note -- it's not o.k. to let them run around by themselves at 6:30 in the morning).

The bathrooms were clean and well located, with running water and coin operated showers. The campground as a whole was extremely clean and well maintained.

Mount Desert Island is a great place to spend a week long vacation. We were there for 4 nights, and I wouldn't have cut it any shorter, considering the lengthy drive to get out there. The island is an outdoor adventure mecca, but it never seemed that crowded during our stay (the first week of September). We saw a seal and three dolphins while paddling in Somes Sound -- it was awesome. We did some hiking in Acadia, checked out the park's nature center, and walked around Bar Harbor. We never even got over to the west side of the island.

Bradbury Mountain State Park

Overall Rating (1 to 10) : 8

Location: Pownal, Maine

We only spent one night at Bradbury Mountain, but it seemed very nice and I would definitely go back. It was VERY quiet. The park is about 30 minutes from Portland or Freeport, but it felt isolated (there's nothing much in the general vicinity). The park looked pretty big, with some interesting trails and historical features, but we didn't get a chance to really explore it.

There were plenty of sites to choose from since only two were occupied. I talked John into taking one of the walk-in sites because it had a lean-to that I wanted to check out (it had been raining). We lugged all our stuff down a pretty little path through the woods to get to our site (a little cart would have been helpful, though certainly not necessary). The site, as well as the campground as a whole, was very well maintained. The shelter looked newly built. The toilets (composting) were clean and looked new, too. Though there weren't showers, water was available at pumps.

Mt. Greylock State Reservation

Overall Rating (1 to 10) : 8.5

Location: Lanesborough, Mass.

We arrived at Mt. Greylock just after sunset on a Friday night. There was still a ranger at the campground entrance, luckily, and we had no problem getting a site (the staff at Greylock were very helpful and knowledgeable). Since it was getting dark we weren't too picky about our site, but it turned out to be pretty nice by the light of day. On Saturday we drove further down the road (toward the overlook) and saw some really nice walk-in sites.

The camping, as well as the park as a whole, is very secluded. It's well worth the extra drive to come to this out-of-the-way spot. It felt like a national park, complete with lodges at both the base and summit of the mountain. The Appalachian trail goes through the park. There's an access road to the top, where there's this strange lighthouse (really) that they decided to put 200 miles from any ocean. You can climb a spiral staircase to the top of the lighthouse.

The camping is primitive (meaning there aren't facilities with running water, just composting toilets). You can get water at the summit or at the base lodge. All the sites were wooded and fairly secluded. The first night our neighbors (a large group) were noisy, but the second night all was quiet.

This is a fantastic place for hiking. There are multiple trails leading right out of the campground, with varied terrain and difficulty. We did a circular hike up to the summit and back down to the campground, and later drove down the access road and hiked out to see the site of a plane crash. We also walked a lengthy nature trail that started from the base lodge (What kind of moss is that? Running moss.) and checked out the little museum in the lodge.

Burlingame State Park

Overall Rating (1 to 10) : 6

Location: Charlestown, RI

Burlingame is HUGE, with plenty of sites to go around. We were there for the Fourth of July weekend, and there were still lots of sites available (though many of them weren't that desirable). You'd have to spend quite a while driving around to see all the open sites, so we asked the folks at the front to pick a good site for us. I guess they weren't that familiar with the site they gave us, because it was pretty crummy -- small and partially in a gully, with these weird enormous beetles running around.

This wasn't a problem, because there were several decent sites in the general vicinity, and we were able to switch to a better one. We settled on a fairly large site (my brother and some friends were with us, so we needed room for three tents). It was private, with a nice patch of woods (scrub brush, pine, and blueberry bushes) running behind the site. Being near the ocean (and in the Ocean State) the ground was very sandy and flat. Our friend brought hammocks, which we tied to the little grove of pines on the site.

The campground has a lake and a little beach (good for little kids, but not that exciting compared to the ocean). There's a busy little camp store and a recreation hall. It feels kind of like summer camp, actually. There were a lot of people walking around and hanging out, and kids riding their bikes around. It felt busy but safe (though I could see how it might get noisy, if you weren't lucky with your neighbors).

The downside: the bathrooms were quite far away, and there weren't very many of them. They placed port-a-potties around the campground (kind of unsightly, I thought, and also stinky) to make up for the lack of regular facilities. Also, the price seemed steep for a state run campground.

Things to do in the area: Go to the beach (it's right across the street from the campground). We drove to Watch Hill for the beach (because it's free, if you can find parking) and also because of the cute town and my favorite ice cream stand in Rhode Island. We also visited Ninigret Conservation area (just down the road from the campground) -- there's some nice easy trails here (good for kids) and a nature center (though it wasn't open when we were there).