of Connecticut and all New England. This robust landscape is the Connecticut extension of New York's Hudson Highlands and Taconic Mountains and Massachusetts' Berkshire Mountains. The Northwest Highlands are by far Connecticut's most rugged and dramatic region.

The most characteristic feature of the Northwest Highlands is their high, steep-sided plateaus. The summits of the plateaus are not table-top flat, like the mesas of Arizona; instead, the summits are actually more comparable to the rolling hills topography of the Southwest Hills and Windham Hills. The Northwest Highlands plateaus are topped by the same streamlined hills and bedrock knobs seen elsewhere; however, the plateaus elevate the hills and knobs a good 700 to 1,000 feet higher than they might otherwise reach. If the rolling Windham Hills terrain of, say, Lebanon, Connecticut were suddenly thrust 1,000 feet higher, it would form a plateau similar to those of the Northwest.

The highest of the plateaus is the Taconic Plateau (also known as the Mount Riga Plateau) in the very northwest corner of the state where Connecticut, Massachusetts, and New York come together. This plateau is an extension of the Taconic Mountains, which run along most of the border between Massachusetts and New York. The top of the plateau forms a more or less level surface with an elevation of around 1,800 feet, approximately 1,100 feet above the adjacent valley floor. Above this surface rise several large bumps: Mount Frissel, Gridley Mountain, Bear Mountain, Bald Peak, and Mount Riga. The highest point in Connecticut, 2,380 feet above sea level, is on the south slope of Mount Frissel (which reaches its summit of 2,453 feet just across the border in Massachusetts). The highest peak that lies entirely within Connecticut is Bear Mountain, with an elevation of 2,316 feet.

The most extensive and best-known plateau is the Litchfield Hills Plateau. This high promontory is the extension of the Berkshire Mountains into Connecticut, part of a long belt of similar rocks and landscapes that includes the Hudson Highlands of New York and the Green Mountains of Vermont. The Litchfield Hills are often referred to as the "foothills of the Berkshires" and are extremely picturesque. During autumn when the hills are dressed in their fiery fall plumage, a brisk tourist trade is supported by visitors from all over the country who come

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