The highway climbs through a cut (75.8) in contorted, gneissic Conway schist, which seems to be lined with twisted white quartz veins from this point to the margin of the Connecticut Valley. The road levels off just before it reaches the New England upland, and then it drops through rolling hill country to the shaded valley of Mill Brook (77.4), which it follows to the edge of the lowland (80.1). Rocky ledges are common along this swiftly flowing stream. A good view of the Pocumtuck Hills appears on the left (79.7), with the flat plain of the old Deerfield delta stretching to their base. The road crosses this plain and enters South Deerfield (81.8).
The tour turns north on Federal Highway 5, which is built on the deposits spread in glacial Lake Hadley by the Deerfield River from its mouth eastward to the foot of the Pocumtuck Hills of Triassic conglomerate. Bloody Brook (82.2) drains this part of the plain. North of the road which goes through the notch between the Sugarloafs (82.6), the delta deposits continue as a terrace along the base of the Pocumtuck Hills as far as Cheapside. But the Deerfield has excavated its post-glacial delta, and the roadway descends to the meander-cut floodplain (84.4 to 88.1), though it rises over one of the meander scarps (85.1). Remnants of the Deerfield delta form a terrace due west across the valley and on the margin of the hills. The entire lowland north of the meander-cut terrace was inundated in 1936, and the water level may still be identified by debris on the railroad embankment on the right. Old Deerfield (86.1) itself is on a meander-scarp terrace, and the 1936 flood line is well marked along it. After the road crosses the Deerfield River (88.3), it leaves the floodplain as it climbs to the center of Greenfield (89.8).
Greenfield, Orange, Pelham, Amherst, and Deerfield
Route 2 also leads eastward from Greenfield to the French King Bridge and Millers Falls. The highway out from Greenfield turns north (0.3) along the west front of the trap ridge, near the summit of which several individual lava flows are represented by separate sets of columns superimposed one upon the other (see [p. 26]). The underlying bedded sandstones outcrop in the lower wooded slopes. A road branches right (1.7) to Turners Falls and crosses the lava ridge, but the main highway continues straight to a sharp curve near Falls River (3.4). Pillow-shaped masses of lava characterize the bottom of the lava flow and lie above conglomerate in the bluff to the right. The valley of Falls River is a fault zone slicing across the lava sheet, which reappears at the lookout-parking place at Turners Falls (3.5). The extent to which the waterfall has receded (see pp. [58]-59) may be judged from the length of the gorge.
The route continues left past the bridge entrance (3.6). Ripple-marked red shales—once Triassic muds in which stray dinosaurs left their tracks—outcrop by the roadside (4.6 to 5.7), and coarse conglomerate beds (5.9) overlie the shales and dip steeply towards the river. Somewhat farther east a broad sand plain (6.0 to 6.8) of glacial outwash (see [p. 59]), which ends at the French King gorge, buries the Triassic bedrock, but once again conglomerate appears and forms the west wall of the gorge. Pre-Triassic crystalline rocks (6.9) likewise outcrop on the western cliffs, and form a narrow ridge between the present course of the river and the pre-glacial channel, which lies below the glacial delta (7.0 to 7.9) of Millers River.
The road to Northfield turns left (7.9) and another (8.7) leads right to Millers Falls, but Route 2 continues east, climbing high above the river (9.9), which flows through a narrow gorge. Gneiss with horizontal banding outcrops (11.2) in mesa-like hills north of the highway, which descends to a point (12.5) that was 5.5 feet under water during the 1936 flood. The road continues near the water’s edge for almost half a mile, and the narrow gorge through gneiss ends at Erving (13.8). Here the valley widens out into a hilly lowland which has been developed on schist with occasional bands of gneiss. The road follows the north bank of the river across this lowland to Orange (17.9). Route 2 continues to Athol where the Daniel Shays highway enters from the south, but an alternate route, which turns right in the center of Orange and crosses Millers River (18.0), provides a preferable short-cut to the Daniel Shays Highway (21.8). This section of road is lined with stone fences which memorialize the combined labors of the great Ice Sheet and the early settlers.
Route 32 from Petersham and Worcester enters from the left (22.7) just before the highway dips into the creek bottom at the edge of the Quabbin basin. Thence it ascends to the New England upland level, where a lookout (25.5) affords an expansive view to the east and north, with Mount Monadnock rising prominently on the distant skyline. New Salem (25.8) is on the hilltop. Hornblende schist outcrops at intervals across the broad ridge, and especially near the descent (28.4) southwestward to another stream (30.3) which empties into the Quabbin Reservoir. Once again the highway climbs rather steadily for three and one-half miles, passing the Shutesbury road (31.0) on the right, until it reaches another lookout (34.6) from which the trenched New England upland spreads out to the east. Pelham gneiss is the main rock on the broad ridge west of the Quabbin basin, especially in the vicinity of Pelham (35.2), which gave the rock its name.
The tour turns east to Amherst (41.7), following a section which has been described elsewhere (see pp. [78]-79). The principal sights include the panorama of the Connecticut Lowland and the ice-margin lake deposits. The drive from Amherst to Northampton (see pp. [78]-79) and from Northampton to South Deerfield (see pp. [87]-88) on Federal Highway 5 has likewise been covered in other tours, but some new features may be seen along the shorter route from Amherst to Sunderland.
The Sunderland road turns right at the north end of the Amherst common. It descends, first, from Amherst Island, in glacial Lake Hadley, to the old beach at Massachusetts State College (42.6), and then from the beach to the lake bottom (43.2) north of the campus. The route takes the left fork in North Amherst (44.2), traverses part of the old lake bed, swings west around the Long Plain delta (45.5), and crosses its entrenched brook (46.1). Most of the stream’s water seeps through the delta sands and gravels, and emerges in springs at the Fish Hatchery (46.3). Gravel pits across the road furnish an excellent section of the fore-set and top-set beds of the delta. The road right (46.8) goes to the delta top east of Mount Toby, Montague and Turners Falls, but the main highway continues north.
The road turns left and then right (47.2), cutting through a beach bar in glacial Lake Hadley, and passing a sand dune area (47.6) which developed from the sandy braids in the channel of the Connecticut when it first established its course on the lake bed (see pp. [4]-6). The route drops down from a terrace (47.9) to the highest floodplain level of the Connecticut. Swales (48.3 and 48.5) on this flat represent former river channels, and the scalloped embankment to the east records the lateral swing and undercutting of the meandering river. The North Hadley road (48.7) enters from the south along a low ridge between two swales, and after the sharp right turn into Sunderland (49.2), the road divides, one fork going north to Montague, the other west across the Sunderland Bridge to South Deerfield.