Sunday, May 5, 2013

John Drummond Kennedy Park, Lenox, MA

May 4, 2013
Distance: 5.3 miles
Time: 2 hours 48 minutes
Year to date miles: 81.7

Map: Kennedy Park Map

Parking: West Dugway Road, Lenox, MA. Room for around 12 cars

Restrooms: None
Post hike dinner:  Berkshire Coop

Directions: AMCs Best Day Hikes in the Berkshires

Notes:
No road crossings. Wide, dirt trails. Mostly easy to easy/moderate. The trails aren't blazed - instead they have "street signs" with the trail names at intersections. There are a lot of trails, and many are not marked. We had to hike with the map constantly in hand. We tried following the AMC hike description, but you can make shorter or longer variations.

Most of the trails don't have views, but the lookout and gazebo do. This hike also had a pond.

This park is popular so we did meet quite a few groups of people. It looks like well behaved dogs are off leash (my interpretation of the sign), and most of the dogs we saw were off leash. The trails are used by mountain bikers and equestrians too.

Sign on the road for the parking area.

The kiosk had a colored map of the trails. However, since none of the trails are blazed, the colors don't matter.


Most of the trails look like this - wide & dirt.

Trail signs look like this - some of them marked for cross country skiing as well.


Trek in front of the balanced rock.

The highlight of the trip for the dogs. It was in the low 70's and sunny, and the dogs were hot! So, we took a long break and entertained them by throwing sticks for them.

...which they took turns retrieving.

Heading to the gazebo

Which is a nice place to stop and take a rest.

On the ceiling of the gazebo, it lists mountains in each direction.

View of Mount Greylock in the distance.

No view of Umbrella Hill.

There used to be a hotel here. This spot is marked as the "lookout" and has nice views  of the surrounding mountains and what I guess is a reservoir.


 


2 comments:

  1. Hello,
    I would like to ask your permission to use one of your photos from Kennedy Park in Lenox. This park is threatened by the proposed natural gas pipeline project that would run across most of northern Massachusetts. There will be a statewide summit meeting at Montachusett Tech in Fitchburg on Nov. 15th and we are creating photo collages of as many affected towns as possible. I live in Groton and have not been able to get out west to take photos, so your contribution would be extremely appreciated. Thank you so much!!! ps this is time sensitive!!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Yes you may. Good luck on protecting the park.

    ReplyDelete