Thursday Treks – Purgatory Chasm

Way long ago, in BC (before children) times, I used to commute from Sturbridge, MA to Cambridge, MA daily.  It is a 60 mile drive one way.  The 15 miles closest to Cambridge could contain some of the worst traffic I have ever seen.  The drive was not very pleasant, and I was always looking for distractions.

Along the way I would pass a sign for Purgatory Chasm.  The name itself would distract me for a bit (simple minds….).  I vowed that someday I would go there and see what it was all about.  In the 7 years we lived in Sturbridge we never went there.

Fast forward to 7 years and 5 children later.  This summer I was looking for a place to bring the kids for a hike and my mother said she had just read about a place called Purgatory Chasm.  Ding, ding, ding!

We brought the kids to the Purgatory Chasm State Reservation in Sutton, MA on Number 5’s birthday for a hike.  Purgatory Chasm is known for its 0.25 mile long, 70 foot deep chasm.  The park has 2 miles of hiking trails.

We set out in high spirits as we debated the proper pronunciation of the word chasm (with a ch sound or a hard c sound).  And immediately said, Whoa!  There were no handrails, hardly any trail markers, just people scrabbling on and over rocks down into and through the chasm. It looked dangerous – the kids loved it!  Although Number 5 was only a few hours into being 3 years old, he is very adventurous and kept right up with his brothers and sister.  In fact we had to pull him off a lot of the rocks because he was making us so nervous!

Unfortunately we didn’t take any pictures that captured the spirit of the chasm – but we got a lot of kid shots!

I like it in purgatory!

Purgatory is taking family hikes.

I’m a big boy now!

Little Mermaid?