the old Becket Quarry

A recent trip to visit Sarah’s parents in the Berkshires found us looking for a way to fill a hot, sunny afternoon. My first thought (my always first thought in the summer): swimming hole!

A couple of Googles later and it seemed like the old quarry in Becket, MA might be a good bet. It wasn’t clear that if it was actually open to the public (or legal), but there were definitely at least a couple YouTube videos with kids jumping off the cliffs into clear, clean water. (Fr’instance.)

Anyway, we (Sarah, Andre, Otis, and Grandma CC) headed out and hike up to the quarry. When we got there: lots of garbage, graffiti, and teens (TEENS!). Ugh. The worst part was all the broken glass. (If you ask us, bringing beer to a swimming hole is standard procedure. But bringing it in glass bottles should be punishable by death.)

We decided to leave the swimming to the kids (and their dogs) and hiked around to the other side to eat our lunch. We watched from above as the life and limb were risked to satisfy the shouted taunts of swimming friends: "Jump, Paul! Just do it! Don’t be a pussy!" (You can see Paul midair in the photograph above.)

the old Becket Quarry