A Bookish Hike: Mt. Greylock — All The Books I Haven't Read

Tributes to famous authors dot the summit

If you’re a bookish hiker and are looking for a fall foliage pilgrimage you can’t do much better than Mt. Greylock, the highest peak in Massachusetts.

Mt. Greylock has been an inspiration for many writers over the years. Nathaniel Hawthorne mentioned it in his short story Ethan Brand. Herman Melville was said to have decided to write about whales when he saw the snow covered slope of the mountain out his window. And more recently, J.K. Rowling set Ilvermorny, the North American school of witchcraft and wizardry in the there.

There’s an auto road to the top, but driving means you’d miss out on hiking a beautiful stretch of the Appalachian Trail. There is of course the foliage that New England is known for, but you also get to hike through the only taiga-boreal forest in the state. In English this means there are many beautiful pine and spruce trees.