Nearby state park facilities and wildlife management areas also provide a good reason for a side trip. Leave the byway in the center of Miller Falls and follow directional signs to the Wendell State Forest. The forest, located just across the border in Wendell is a state park facility, which offers opportunities for swimming, hiking and fishing at Ruggles Pond. The park is also the site of the annual GMC Truck Rally. Another nearby attraction is the Montague Plains Wildlife Management Area, a fifteen hundred acre, state wildlife refuge and unique ecological area, operated by the Massachusetts Department of Fisheries and Wildlife. The “Plains” are a rare pine barren, which supports habitat for many rare plants and animals. The Montague Plains area located on a large sand delta that was formed more than 10,000 years ago when melt water streams from the retreating glaciers emptied into Glacial Lake Hitchcock, a huge lake that covered much of Montague and the Connecticut River Valley during the glacial period. The Plains are a popular attractions for nature walks, ecological field trips for the nearby University of Massachusetts and Greenfield Community College students, hunting in season (pheasant, deer and small game), dirt biking and mountain biking, and mushroom collection.