Massachusetts mountains and nature centers are primed for outdoor adventure

Massachusetts > State > Outdoor Activities > Outdoor Adventures

The beauty of nature in the Berkshires Mountains of western Massachusetts – think, for example, of the views from Mount Greylock – gets the heart racing, especially for people who love to throw themselves into the outdoors to play. Ski mountains in the Berkshires and Pioneer Valley will keep the whole family – from kids to grandparents – busy and tired during cold-weather and warm-weather vacations. Naturally, the ski areas will have snow sports and lessons and rentals. In the summer and fall foliage seasons, come to enjoy zip lines and canopy tours and other aerial adventures, mountain coasters and mountain biking, white water rafting, and water sports. Tired muscles? It is not hard to find a spa with massage and fitness rooms, and game rooms for the kids.

Find more great outdoor adventures at Explore New England.

Autumn Boat River - Old Sturbridge Village - Sturbridge, MA

Old Sturbridge Inn & Reeder Family Lodges

369 Main Street Sturbridge, MA, 01566 Phone: 774-304-1011

Let this outdoor living history museum help you launch your 1830s adventure

Old Sturbridge Village is open! Advanced ticketing required is required. Please visit our updated policies & procedures before reserving your visit.

Begin your 19th century adventure at Old Sturbridge Village, the largest outdoor living history museum in the Northeast. Go back in time to a New England rural village, circa 1830, as you stroll by shops, schoolhouses, a cider mill, printing office, bank and other historic homes and buildings. Costumed historians demonstrate everything from how the sawmill operated and how cooking was accomplished to how shoes (human and horse) were made. Many displays are currently outside. At the farm, animals – sheep, cattle, pigs, chickens and turkeys – await your visit. There are gardens to admire, covered bridges to enjoy, and nature trails offer walks through pastures, woodland and along the banks of the Quinebaug River.

Old Sturbridge Village

1 Old Sturbridge Village Road, off Route 20 Sturbridge, MA, 01566 Phone: 508-347-3362 Toll-Free: 800-733-1830

Village museum, where 1830s come to life, offers outdoor walks, explorations

Whether you’re walking the streets of the re-created village or along a nature trail, there is plenty to do in the great outdoors at Old Sturbridge Village, where visitors are transported to an 1830s New England village . Stroll from the blacksmith shop to the schoolhouse, or through gorgeous gardens (some ornamental, some for herbs, some for children). At the Freeman Farm, you can admire the heritage-breed cattle, pigs, chickens and sheep and its extensive kitchen garden. You can ride in a horse-drawn wagon, walk under a covered bridge or explore three nature trails: one through pastures, one through woodlands (watch for deer) and one along the Quinebaug River (watch for great blue herons). Grab a sandwich at the Ox & Yoke Cafe or eat outside at the Bullard Tavern.

Visit North Central Massachusetts

1000 Route 2 West (between Exits 103 & 102) Lancaster, MA, 01523 Phone: 978-534-2302

A wide variety of active fun adventures await you in North Central Massachusetts

From horse drawn sleighs to snowshoeing, winter fun in North Central Mass goes well beyond the ski slopes of Wachusett Mountain. Enjoy a horse-drawn sleigh ride at Cornerstone Ranch in Princeton, MA. Sleighs are guided by one or two horses (yes, with bells on) glide across paths blanketed in fresh snow -- experience the feeling of gliding through the frosty air in a magical winter landscape. (If there’s not enough snow, you can ride in a large wagon). Enjoy hot chocolate by the wood stove after your 30-minute ride. Then it’s time to go cross-country skiing, snowshoeing, or winter hiking. Glide along 13-plus miles of trails in the Brooks Woodland Preserve in Petersham, MA, where you’ll explore an undisturbed forest of towering red oaks, hemlocks and white pine as well as old stone walls from early 19th-century farmsteads. - Read more about North Central Mass. here!

Destination Plymouth Brewster Gardens Plymuth MA Credit Kindra Clineff

See Plymouth

4 North Street Plymouth, MA, 02360 Phone: 508-747-0100 Toll-Free: 800-872-1620

Historical sites, activities from whale-watching to golfing make Plymouth ideal for outdoor enthusiasts

Plymouth is a terrific location for those who want to explore and enjoy the great outdoors. Talk a walk through Brewster Garden to the Mayflower II and Plymouth Rock, statues of Massasoit and William Bradford and the Pilgrim Sarcophagus, with the remains of Pilgrims who died the first year after their arrival. Enjoy one of the area’s inviting, sandy beaches, play golf, go on a whale watch or fishing excursion or take the fast ferry to Provincetown. Visit Plimoth Patuxet Museums and walk through a 17th-century English village and a Wampanoag homesite. Take a tour of Plymouth by night, play golf, go sea kayaking, walk the breakwater jetty at the harbor, go hiking or biking in the state forest or in an Audubon sanctuary. Please call 1.800.USA.1620, or visit our website to learn more about these activities and others to prepare for your trip to Plymouth.

See You in Plymouth this Summer! Visit our Destination Plymouth page!

Cape Cod Awaits You! Click here for more info.

American Heritage Museum

568 Main Street Hudson, MA, 01749 Phone: 978-562-9182

Historical re-enactments and encampments and tank-driving opportunities part of this exciting museum

The museum is now open! Wednesdays-Sundays from 10am-5pm. Advance ticketing is preferred - Please call or visit our website.

At the American Heritage Museum, the Jacques M. Littlefield Collection, the world’s largest privately held collection of tanks and military vehicles, takes center stage. Visitors can see the collection in exhibits and dioramas that chronicle battles, wars and conflicts, including both world wars, Vietnam, Korea, the Gulf War and the War on Terror. Outdoors, in the tank training area behind the museum, you can actually drive or ride aboard a tank, either the M24 Chaffee Light Tank or the M4A3 Sherman Medium Tank. Check the website for how to make arrangements for that exciting activity and to see what special outdoor events are coming up on weekends, including re-enactments and historical encampments, an early-aviation weekend and weekends featuring magnificent classic automobiles.

Discover Quincy

City of Quincy Welcome Center - 1259 Hancock Street Quincy, MA, 02169 Phone: 617-471-1700

Great outdoor opportunities from swimming and kayaking to hiking, biking

Outdoor pursuits in Quincy run the gamut from hiking and biking to kayaking and, in the winter, skiing and skating. Blue Hills Reservation, a 7,000-acre urban oasis, features 125 miles of trails for hikers, joggers, bikers and mountain bikers. In the winter, there’s lift-served skiing, and snowshoeing. (There’s also a public skating rink.) For beach-lovers, the Quincy Shores Reservation boasts trails, a lookout tower and picnic areas in addition to its sandy beach. Walk the Presidents Trail through the city, past historic homes as well as shops and restaurants. In Adams National Historical Park, in addition to Adams homes, you can walk into the orchard and formal garden. Hike to the Abigail Adams Cairn to see where she and son John Quincy watched the Battle of Bunker Hill.

Jiminy Peak Mountain Resort

37 Corey Road -- Route 43 Hancock, MA, 01237 Phone: 413-738-5500 Toll-Free: 800-882-8859

Resort adventures include skiing, mountain biking, alpine slides, zip lines and so much more

It isn’t only about skiing and snowboarding at the Jiminy Peak Mountain Resort, although the trails and terrain parks for both are superb. When it comes to exciting outdoor pursuits, the Berkshires resort is chock-a-block. There’s mountain biking and hiking, walking trails and snowshoeing. Over at the Mountain Adventure Park, you can zoom down an alpine slide or mountain coaster, arc high into the sky on a giant swing, see Mt. Greylock and the Jericho Valley as you ascend and descend in a scenic chairlift ride, or fly through the air on a zip line. There’s also a rock-climbing wall, playground and bungy trampoline. In the Aerial Adventure Park, you can overcome challenges from rope bridges and cargo nets to zip lines and swinging logs in the elevated ropes course.

Charles River west of Boston

via properties of Trustees of Reservations Milllis, Medfield, Needham, MA Phone: 508-785-0339

The Charles River west of Boston is a welcoming place for kayakers and canoeists. Several nature preserves run by the Trustees of Reservations along this paddling route allow you to touch land, explore, and have a picnic. It's about a 20-mile float from start to finish -- prepare accordingly and take a map!

You can put in at Cedariver, a former farm in Millis, which has a state-run boat launch. - Area Map
Moving downstream, paddlers encounter Shattuck Reservation, which is old pasture land, with nice views and trails. - Area Map
Next, watch for Bridge Island Meadows, accessible only when the water is flowing in Bogastow Brook. - Area Map
Next along the Charles River float is Rocky Narrows in Medfield, with incomparable views of the Charles River as it winds between granite walls. Just across the river from Rocky Narrows is Peters Reservation in Dover, which has a mix of natural flora, designed landscape and plantings, and two miles of trails. - Area Map
Take out can be at Charles River Peninsula in Needham, a great picnic spot surrounded on three sides by the river, with access to a state-run boat launch. - Area Map

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