Savoy Mountain State Forest

Overall Rating (1 to 10) : 8.5

Location: Florida, Mass.

Savoy Mountain is an idyllic campground, set on a hilltop meadow within the state forest. It used to be an apple orchard -- I picked some apples from the remaining apple trees. It was unfortunately rainy and misty for most of our visit over Columbus Day weekend, but we (John and I, Mike, and his girlfriend Marie) still enjoyed the scenery. There is also a large pond with a swimming area, but it was too chilly for us to enjoy it. I bet it would be nice to paddle around on.

There are lots of hiking trails in the state forest, some of which start at the campground. We hiked out to the Tannery Falls, which were more impressive than I was expecting.

The campsites are all medium or large sized, and well spaced out. The sites on the meadow aren't tremendously private, but are still very pretty and looked fun. We stayed at one of the many wooded sites around the perimeter of the meadow. There are even a few wooded sites that are three-in-one, with views of the woods, the meadow, and the pond.

I really enjoyed the open, pastoral quality of this campground. It was unlike most of the places we camp. There were tons of little birds in the meadow grass -- as you walked by, they would fly up in front of you.

The bathrooms were better than decent, with free hot showers and flush toilets. John in particular liked the dish washing station, complete with hot water and a space to lay everything out.

The campground is fairly off the beaten path, but it's still only 15 minutes to North Adams, where there's a grocery store, restaurants, etc.