Heather Bellow is reporting for The Berkshire Eagle officials at the Massachusetts Department of Conservation and Recreation have blocked swimming access at Bash Bish Falls. Barriers now block the access point that for decades made it possible to swim at the falls, which straddles the Massachusetts and New York state border. The hiking trails are open, however. “It was always a dangerous place,” said Brian Tobin, the Town of Mount Washington Select Board chair and acting police chief. “People ignored all the signage that said ‘no swimming.’ With the pandemic, the traffic got a lot worse. People were using it as a swimming hole, and that just wasn’t a good idea.” The state has also built a new parking lot with limited spaces, Tobin said. People also can park at Taconic State Park on the New York side. Tobin says he understands how disappointing it is to those who yearn to swim at Bash Bish, but the action taken was absolutely necessary. “People always slip and fall. We don’t have the resources to police it and keep people out [of the water],” he said. The falls, amid the parks gorges and ravine forest, are one of the highlights of the 424-acre Bash Bish Falls State Park. In August 2018 a man died after slipping and falling into the water on a Friday evening. It took rescuers two days to locate his body. Three deaths in the 1960s prompted the state to patrol the park and prohibit swimming. Read the full story in The Berkshire Eagle.