Drive out to Royalston, Mass., just to see the waterfalls and you will spend more time in the car than on the trail. That could be good, if you like short hikes.

Royalston isn’t too far, about an hour and a half’s drive from Nashua, and the Royalston Falls can be reached with about 30 minutes walking (your pace may vary) from the nearest trailhead off the Athol-Richmond Road, AKA Route 32. Route 32 is in rough shape, so take it slow if you go.

Falls Brook drops 45 feet at Royalston Falls, plunging into a dark and dramatic gorge. The Brook is rather pretty, and its tanic brown waters have carved a curious path through the landscape for quite some distance upstream of there. It’s worth following the Monadnock Metacomet Trail a ways north along its banks just to check it out.

Royalston is one of three waterfalls along the Tully Trail, a 22-mile loop that would probably make an excellent day hike (so long as you hike fast) or even trail racecourse.

The area includes a  campground, and is managed mostly by the Trustees of Reservations and also the Army Corps of Engineers, which runs the dam that turned Falls Brook into Tully Lake. Our trip out there last week was my first visit, and I can’t vouch for the rest of the trail, but it seems like a lovely area to me. I’ll be back.