Northampton makes an excellent base for many drives that will gratify the lover of scenery, of rocks, or of minerals. The drives range from ten to one hundred miles in length, and any one of them may be extended or shortened at the whim of the driver. To the east the hard surface of Route 9 leads through Amherst, Pelham, and Belchertown; and to the west, as the Berkshire Trail, it rises to the western upland via Williamsburg and Goshen. Side roads go to Ashfield and Conway, and permit a return by way of South Deerfield; or, via Cummington and West Chesterfield, one may come back by way of Huntington and Westhampton. Federal Highway 5 follows the Valley north to Greenfield, whence optional return routes are available through Shelburne Falls, Conway and South Deerfield in the western upland; or through Orange, Pelham and Amherst in the eastern upland. Each of these routes offers arresting views of the broad Connecticut Valley, the picturesque gorges along its margins, and the even-crested highlands with distant peaks of greater elevation. Indeed, the choice of attractive drives is bewildering, even for those who are hesitant about wandering off the surfaced highways. In the following pages only a few of the possibilities which are available to the motorist are described. And for each one chosen, the striking views and the significant geological features are indicated, in the hope and belief that the traveler may turn explorer and, in following other byways, may reconstruct for himself many additional details of the region’s geologic past. _Northampton, Amherst, Pelham_ The route leaves from the Court House corner on Highway 5 and the excursion follows Route 9 eastward across the Coolidge Memorial Bridge (1.3),[1] where a panorama of the floodplain with its many channel scars and terrace levels is spread out below (see pp. 1-3). Beyond Hadley (3.0) the road tops the highest river floodplain at a conspicuous terrace (4.9) and rolls gently over the ancient bed of Lake Hadley. The shore line of this glacial lake appears as a broad flat between Orchard Street and Lincoln Avenue in Amherst (6-9). (See pp. 5-7.)