Central Massachusetts Day Trip

Central Massachusetts has many day trip opportunities, one of which -regardless of season - is Wachusett Mountain. Along the way, either before or after your day excursion, are plenty of opportunities for exploration and repast.

Several of the towns around Wachusett have municipal conservation, parks, and forests; Paxton, Sterling, and Holden in particular. The Massachusetts Audubon Society and Trustees of Reservations both operate properties in the region.

The Wachusett state reservation has year round appeal. Certainly, in the winter the ski resort is a fine draw. Affordable and close, Wachusett gives a solid skiing experience for those less willing to make the long drive to New Hampshire, Vermont, or Maine. Given its relative proximity to Boston, one could easily head for a couple of hours of skiing after work and before heading home.

During the spring and summer, the reservation offers 17 miles of hiking trails along with old growth forest - dating some 350 years - meadows, ponds, and streams. Part of those 17 miles is almost 4 miles of the "midstate trail," which runs from Northern Massachusetts to Rhode Island.

Mount Wachusett is in Princeton, Massachusetts, a small hamlet of about 3,400 residents. Princeton played a role during "King Philip's War" - one of the bloodiest wars in colonial America. A stop along your trip should be the ¼ acre "Redeption Rock" reservation, where Mary White Rowlandson was released from captivity during the war.

While on your day trip and looking for a place to eat, the 1761 Old Mill Restaurant is a definite must.

The setting is an actual Mill complex dating to the mid-1700's. The charm and ambiance of the man made water area cannot be overstated. The mill itself has been a restaurant since 1946 and had been a tea room since the early 1920's. Before then, it had fallen into disrepair over the previous 40 years or so when the saw mill had ceased operation.