Every weekend through September and into early October, the Upper Housatonic Valley National Heritage Area offers "Heritage Walks," right here in the Berkshires and Litchfield, Connecticut.

These are free, guided walks led by historians, naturalists, and environmentalists, each one opening a door into the layered stories of our region: its land, its people, its quiet revolutions.

On a crisp, colorful-Autumn Saturday last year, my granddaughter and I joined the truly fascinating Keystone Arches Bridges Walk in Chester, Massachusetts. Our guide, Dave Pierce, brought the past to life with such depth and clarity that even the old stagecoach road beside the railway seemed to speak, with each step more compelling than the last.

This season, on September 5 we'll join the first of several scheduled walks through the history of Indian Town, Stockbridge and, later, on September 12, the newly-added walk around York Lake and Sandisfield State Forest. I'm curious what the land will share with us next.

Brochures are available at the Farmington River General Store and the Sandisfield Library. Pick one up. Choose a walk. These walks are free; the stories are priceless.

The full (69 walks in total) 2026 schedule is posted at Heritage Walks.