Pocumtuck Range - Geography

Geography

The range, 11 miles (18 km) long by 1.75 miles (2.8 km) wide at its widest point, includes, from south to north, Sugarloaf Mountain of Deerfield; a central high ridge most often called Pocumtuck Ridge; and Rocky Mountain (sometimes called Greenfield Ridge) of Greenfield. Notable peaks include, from south to north:

• South Sugarloaf Mountain, 652 feet (199 m), a butte-like peak at the south end of the Pocumtuck Range, well known for its historic summit automobile road and abrupt butte-like cliffs overlooking the Connecticut River valley south.
• North Sugarloaf Mountain, 791 feet (241 m), looms above South Sugarloaf with ledges facing south and west.
• Pocumtuck Rock, 846 feet (258 m), the sandstone high point on the 2-mile (3 km) long cliffs of the Pocumtuck Ridge which rise 500 feet (150 m) above Interstate 91 and the rural Deerfield River Valley to the west.
• Trap Rock Ledge, 452 feet (138 m), a trap rock overlook on the east side of Pocumtuck Ridge.
• Sachem Head, 452 feet (138 m), a popular, exposed overlook at the south end of Rocky Mountain.
• Poet's Seat 492 feet (150 m), high point of Rocky Mountain, overlooking Greenfield, with its historic Poet's Seat Tower.
• Canada Hill, 338 feet (103 m), the steep northern prominence of Rocky Mountain at the confluence of the Connecticut River and Falls River, prominent from both Greenfield and from the Connecticut River mill village of Turner's Falls, Massachusetts to the east.

The Deerfield River cuts between Rocky Mountain and Pocumtuck Ridge just before merging with the Connecticut River.

The Pocumtuck Range is located entirely in Deerfield and Greenfield. The Metacomet Ridge, of which it is a part, continues north as a series of low sedimentary hills and dwindling trap rock outcrops to just two miles south of the Vermont and New Hampshire borders in Northfield, Massachusetts. South of Sugarloaf Mountain, the Metacomet Ridge virtually disappears into low, scattered rises and flat plains of sedimentary rock before ascending again as the prominent trap rock Holyoke and Mount Tom Ranges nine miles south.