The lake plain ends at ledges of Granby tuff and agglomerate (38.5). The outcrops east of the road are grooved with glacial striations, and the fragmental nature of the rock is clearly revealed in the smooth surface. Lava lies on the tuff west of the road (38.7) and also at the bottom of the volcanic series at the Aldrich Lake road (39.0). Coarse conglomerates make recurrent ridges as far as the base of the Range (39.5), where the road follows a shelf cut into the Holyoke lava flow just west of the Notch fault. The conglomerate east of this fault was displaced downward; and as it disintegrates easily, a depression has been cut into the Range east of the road. The quarry situated at the top of the Range (39.8) just north of the Amherst town line, has brought to light many fault fractures that have served the mineral collector well for almost a century. The Range trail (see pp. [73]-75) westward leaves the highway at the town line marker, and the path eastward follows the old trolley line northeastward from the scales house.
The route begins its descent (40.2) through a cut in conglomerate, and the entire northern valley is spread out below: Sugarloaf and Toby close the eastern side of the view, and hills far up in Vermont form the background in the northwest. The road quickly reaches the flat plain of Lake Hadley (40.7), with apple orchards stretching along its gravel shore line. The Bay Road crosses the highway (41.1) and parallels the Range from end to end.
The lake deposits fail to conceal many earlier features. Two drumlins (see [p. 9]) rise to the east of the road (41.8) near South Amherst. South Amherst (42.7) is on an island in the old lake; erratic boulders cover the hilltop, and bare rocks mark the old wave-washed shore. The highway crosses Fort (or Freshman) River (43.8), and at the railroad tracks (44.6) it rises to the old lake beach, which is continued in the flat land on the south side of the Amherst College campus. The route turns left at Northampton Road (Route 9) and continues to Northampton (52.2).
The Hockanum Road (State Highway 63), which follows the left fork at South Hadley (33.2), crosses the Lake Springfield sand plain (34.1) and rises above the lake level beyond Bachelor Brook (34.3), staying at this higher altitude beyond the junction with the Moody’s Corner road (35.3). The hills directly ahead are tuff, agglomerate and lava, and are products of the last volcanic episode in this region. Dry Brook (35.6) flows on the sandstone overlying the Holyoke lava sheet, and the latter outcrops in the road cuts (35.8) and to the left in Titan’s Pier (see pp. [60]-61). The road to the Mount Holyoke House and Titan’s Piazza (see [p. 61]) turns right (36.0) where the highway breaks through the last of the lava mass.
The 1936 flood inundated this highway (36.5 to 37.2), and the old watermark may still be identified by debris caught in the bushes and left on pasture land. The view upstream from the floodplain (37.0) shows where the Connecticut is cutting into its eastern bank and causing it to recede (see pp. [1]-2). Soon it will penetrate the valley of Fort River. The road passes through a woodland on the dissected lake-shore deposits, but it soon emerges upon the lake bottom and early river silts (38.6). The Bay Road (39.8) enters from the east just south of the bridge over Fort River (39.9). The road joins the outbound route at Hadley (41) and returns to Northampton (44).
Holyoke, Easthampton, Northampton
The return from Holyoke (36.2) by way of Easthampton leaves Federal Highway 5 and rises westward across a ridge of Granby tuff. Several small lakes (36.7) occupy basins on the friable “second” sandstone between the “second” lava and Granby tuff, which lie immediately to the east, and the Holyoke lava, which lies below and to the west. The sandstone is very thin, and the road shortly begins to climb up the dip slope of the Holyoke lava sheet. Sandstone crops out below the sheet at the west base of a low cliff (38.1) which continues northward to the south face of Mount Tom. The Christopher Clark road through the Mount Tom Reservation enters from the north at the summit (38.5); it follows a scenic route under the west cliffs of the Range to its north end at Mount Nonotuck, where it drops abruptly in a series of hairpin curves to Mount Tom Junction on Federal Highway 5.
At the junction of the Easthampton and Christopher Clark roads, a turn-out offers an opportunity to view the Western Upland, within which, as it makes its way from Goshen and Williamsburg to Northampton, the Mill River has cut an impressive valley. On the long descent to the base of the mountain (39.5), the Easthampton road is cut out of coarse arkosic sandstones, but then it levels off abruptly on the flat plain of glacial Lake Hadley. The lake sediments continue into the center of Easthampton (41.3), broken only by the shallow valley of the Manhan River. From Easthampton the route utilizes the College Highway (State Highway 10) to Northampton; and its position on the lake beds affords good views of the Range and of the abnormally broad floodplain of the meandering Connecticut River in the vicinity of the Oxbow. Just north and east of the New Haven Railroad’s underpass, the river has cut away the terrace followed by the road, and this low stretch, like the rest of the floodplain, is subject to frequent inundations.
The road enters Northampton east of the Smith College campus (45.5) and joins the Berkshire Trail. A right turn at the traffic light leads to the Court House corner (45.7).