About the Barrens Line

October in the blueberry barrens.
Photo courtesy Joanne Halpin.

The Barrens Line winds beneath some of North America's most breathtaking natural scenery. Two hundred thousand acres of wild blueberry fields sprawl across the rugged glacially scoured landscape, home to the world's largest single crop of wild blueberries. The seasonally changing colors of the blueberry barrens are a glorious sight to behold. Charred black by fire in early spring (to stimulate growth and control weeds), the barrens soon take on the healthy bright green blush of new growth. By midsummer the tiny fruits begin to mature, washing the fields with rippling waves of pale blue. During the August harvest the blue abruptly vanishes section by section, acre by acre, as teams of migrant farmworkers make their way across the fields. The colors reach their climax in early October, when the fields erupt in a riotous crescendo of otherworldy reds, purples, and crimson, to be eventually hushed by the tender white blankets of winter's first snows.

DRT riders can savor this extraordinarily beautiful landscape year-round from the comfortable observation decks situated atop each station on the Barrens Line. As with all services on the DRT, the observation decks are barrier-free and universally accessible. Bring a friend, bring your camera, and prepare to be astonished!