State Forest. There is a parking lot at the East Portal of the Hoosac Tunnel where people park to watch trains go in and out of the tunnel, and kayakers and rafters in the Deerfield River. There is a trail beyond a stone wall up and to the right of the tunnel just beyond the entrance.

Moderate. This is a short hike (less than 1/4 mile one way) but there are some steep sections and the trail may be quite narrow and rough in places. The final climb up a small dam to the base of the waterfalls may be difficult for some.

One of us visited the Hoosac Tunnel frequently as a child when there were two tracks and two or three trains per hour on this line of the Boston & Maine from Boston to Albany. When the tunnel was built in 1867, it was the 2nd longest tunnel in the world and the first construction project where nitroglycerine was used. For more information about the Hoosac Tunnel, click here.

One summer, we read in The American Guide guidebook for Massachusetts, written by the Federal Writer's Project under the WPA, about Twin Cascade. On our next visit to the Tunnel, we found the trail and discovered Twin Cascade for ourselves.

Now, there is only one track and only one or two trains per day. But Twin Cascade is still there and is still a very special place.