We were about to leave North Adams after our MASS MocA excursion when I saw on Google Maps that we were less than ten minutes away from something called Natural Bridge State Park. A state park? With a bridge? That is natural? SPONTANEOUS DETOUR!
As we drove down a windy road, we saw that parking would be $5 for our car with MA plates. What a steal! An even better steal—when we finally got to the park, we saw a sign claiming that the $5 fee was waved for the day—hurray! The only other car in the parking lot was the state park maintenance folks. Because this was shaping up to be a little horror-movie-esque, we skipped the Welcome Center (which appeared open, maybe?) and went straight to the trail to find this so-called “natural bridge.”
But first! A dam! And not just any dam, but the ONLY white marble dam in North America (according to the sign)! What!! So cool.
We followed some short trails over some iron (i.e. unnatural) bridges and stairs that led us in between cool rock formations with water running between them.
We walked down to the marble quarry which was an equally impressive sight. I’d only ever seen quarries by the ocean, filled with water. This quarry had a vast grassy lawn at the bottom. It would make a great picnic spot on the right day.
All in all, the park is kind of small, though it would’ve been worth the $5. And I’m still not sure which bridge was the natural one? Hmmm!