The 1936 flood inundated this highway (36.5 to 37.2), and the old watermark may still be identified by debris caught in the bushes and left on pasture land. The view upstream from the floodplain (37.0) shows where the Connecticut is cutting into its eastern bank and causing it to recede (see pp. 1-2). Soon it will penetrate the valley of Fort River. The road passes through a woodland on the dissected lake-shore deposits, but it soon emerges upon the lake bottom and early river silts (38.6). The Bay Road (39.8) enters from the east just south of the bridge over Fort River (39.9). The road joins the outbound route at Hadley (41) and returns to Northampton (44). _Holyoke, Easthampton, Northampton_ The return from Holyoke (36.2) by way of Easthampton leaves Federal Highway 5 and rises westward across a ridge of Granby tuff. Several small lakes (36.7) occupy basins on the friable “second” sandstone between the “second” lava and Granby tuff, which lie immediately to the east, and the Holyoke lava, which lies below and to the west. The sandstone is very thin, and the road shortly begins to climb up the dip slope of the Holyoke lava sheet. Sandstone crops out below the sheet at the west base of a low cliff (38.1) which continues northward to the south face of Mount Tom. The Christopher Clark road through the Mount Tom Reservation enters from the north at the summit (38.5); it follows a scenic route under the west cliffs of the Range to its north end at Mount Nonotuck, where it drops abruptly in a series of hairpin curves to Mount Tom Junction on Federal Highway 5. At the junction of the Easthampton and Christopher Clark roads, a turn-out offers an opportunity to view the Western Upland, within which, as it makes its way from Goshen and Williamsburg to Northampton, the Mill River has cut an impressive valley. On the long descent to the base of the mountain (39.5), the Easthampton road is cut out of coarse arkosic sandstones, but then it levels off abruptly on the flat plain of glacial Lake Hadley. The lake sediments continue into the center of Easthampton (41.3), broken only by the shallow valley of the Manhan River. From Easthampton the route utilizes the College Highway (State Highway 10) to Northampton; and its position on the lake beds affords good views of the Range and of the abnormally broad floodplain of the meandering Connecticut River in the vicinity of the Oxbow. Just north and east of the New Haven Railroad’s underpass, the river has cut away the terrace followed by the road, and this low stretch, like the rest of the floodplain, is subject to frequent inundations. The road enters Northampton east of the Smith College campus (45.5) and joins the Berkshire Trail. A right turn at the traffic light leads to the Court House corner (45.7). _Northampton, Hadley, Sunderland, Hatfield_