Exploring The Summit Of Mount Greylock

I had chosen a beautiful, sunny Sunday to drive up Mount Greylock and so had hundreds of bikers. Individual or groups of two to ten bikers were ascending or descending the winding mountain road and negotiating the hairpin turns. I joined this group parked on the shoulder of the road to admire the view out over the Berkshire Mountains:

The view was magnificent:

And we looked out over a small town which I believe may have been Adams, Massachusetts:

I snapped one more photo and then resumed my drive up to the summit. Notice the cloud shadows moving across the landscape:

There were a lot of visitors to the summit that day and a ranger was collecting the $2.00 parking fee. I parked way off at the end of the lot by myself, near this Thunderbolt Shelter, or pavilion, because I knew from previous visits that a woodland trail from there would serve as a shortcut to the scenic summit:

I could see the War Memorial Tower from the parking lot:

I hiked up the short trail through the forest into the sunshine where these butterflies flitted and danced. I couldn't remember what it was except that I remembered it had an odd name. Indeed, when I looked it up it was a White Admiral, Limenitis arthemis arthemis. I consider it an odd name because a mostly black butterfly is called white:

As I neared the views of the summit, I passed a large patch of Fireweed. I was almost there:

Just around the next bend I saw the beautiful War Memorial Tower:

But first I walked over to the grassy viewing area where I'd had my first experience of Mount Greylock many decades ago:

The views were as I'd remembered them except that the first time there were colorful hang gliders drifting on air currents below the summit:

I walked among the wildflowers at the summit enjoying the view before I went inside the War Memorial Tower, but I'll post about that tomorrow: