Editing Mount Holyoke (section)

==Recreation==
The summit automobile road is open 
for driving from April through November, and the hiking trails year-round. The Summit House is open  weekends and holidays from [[Memorial Day]] through [[Columbus Day]].<ref name="DCR">[http://www.mass.gov/dcr/parks/skinner/ "J.S.Skinner State Park"] Massachusetts Department of Conservation and Recreation. Cited Dec. 25, 2007.</ref> A number of hiking trails also cross the mountain, most notably  the 110 mile (180k) [[Metacomet-Monadnock Trail]] and the {{convert|47|mi|adj=on}} [[Robert Frost Trail (Massachusetts)|Robert Frost Trail]].<ref name="MM"/>

Every year in early fall, since 1838, students from nearby [[Mount Holyoke College]] participate in ''[[Mountain Day]].'' On that day, at the sound of ringing bells from Abbey Chapel on a random Autumn morning, all classes are cancelled and students hike to the summit of Mount Holyoke.<ref>[http://www.mtholyoke.edu/offices/comm/csj/961004/mtday.html Mount Holyoke College] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060304210709/http://www.mtholyoke.edu/offices/comm/csj/961004/mtday.html |date=2006-03-04 }}</ref>

The area around the summit house has many picnic tables.  Also, there are trailheads and memorials.  One notable memorial is that to the men aboard a military plane that crashed into the flank of the mountain. On May 27, 1944, a [[B-24 Liberator]], flying a night training mission out of [[Westover Air Force Base]] in [[Chicopee, Massachusetts]], crashed into a cliff on the side of the range, killing all ten crewmen.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Freeman |first1=Stan |title=From the archives: Lost airmen of Westover B-24 Liberator crash on Mount Holyoke get final tribute |url=https://www.masslive.com/talk/2011/07/from_the_archives_lost_airmen.html |website=www.masslive.com |access-date=12 August 2020}}</ref> A memorial plaque on the summit of Mount Holyoke, installed in May 1989,<ref>{{cite web |url=https://newenglandaviationhistory.com/mt-holyoke-b-24-memorial/ |title=Mount Holyoke, Massachusetts – May 27, 1944 |website=newenglandaviationhistory.com |accessdate=October 23, 2024}}</ref> eulogizes the disaster.  The crash site itself is {{convert|1/2|mi|km|spell=in}} away, toward the southwest.<ref name="C"/>

The views from the top of the mountain are some of the best in Massachusetts.  They have inspired artists and poets. The nearby [[The Oxbow|Connecticut River Oxbow]] (now a lake), immortalized by the famous landscape painter [[Thomas Cole]] just four years before natural flooding and erosion separated it from the Connecticut River, was composed from sketches the artist made from the summit of Mount Holyoke in 1836.<ref>Roque, Oswaldo Rodriguez (1982). "The Oxbow" by Thomas Cole: Iconography of an American Landscape Painting. Metropolitan Museum Journal. pp. 63–7.</ref>  To the south are the cities of Holyoke, Springfield, and Hartford.  To the north are the University of Massachusetts in Amherst and mountains in Sunderland.  To the east is the Holyoke Range and the town of South Hadley.  To the west are the foothills of the Berkshires, the Connecticut River, and Northampton.