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| I'm no city boy, but I'll enjoy the view from a hill! |
After last Sunday's storm ravaged many of the hiking trails in New Hampshire, I decided to head south into Massachusetts today to check out an area I'd looked into a couple times before but had yet to explore, the
Blue Hills Reservation. This large area encompassing several small hills just south of Boston was supposed to have some good views of the cityscape, so my pup and I set out to explore it a little.
The plan was to do a loop on the Skyland Trail as suggested in my
Hiking Southern New England book. At 4.5 miles and around 360 ft. of elevation gain, it seemed like this would be no trouble at all for us and a good choice to break in some new hiking shoes.
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| Kiosk at the start of the Red Dot Trail |
We arrived at the parking area for the
Blue Hills Trailside Museum around 10:20 a.m. and it was already jam packed full of cars. I hadn't thought about it until we got there, but it would make sense that this recreation area would be so popular with such a large population surrounding it (duh, Michael). We started up the Red Dot Trail with our sites set on the Eliot Tower...only to see an a-frame sign at the beginning of the trail saying the tower was closed for repairs. I was hoping to get a good view of the Boston skyline from there, but undeterred, we continued on our planned route with hopes of finding a good view on one of the other hills we'd be traversing throughout the hike.
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| Panorama from near the base of the weather observatory |
The Red Dot Trail was an easy-side-of-moderate ascent to the tower. I was very surprised to see just how rocky this trail and much of the other stretches of our hike were. I wasn't expecting so much rugged technical way-finding, but it made more fun than I'd envisioned! Since the Eliot Tower was closed, we took a detour up to the weather observatory at the top of Great Blue Hill. From there we got a pretty good view to the west, which was pretty flat, but it was neat to see the country's oldest weather observatory still in operation. After a quick break here, we looped around the tower until we met up with the south Skyland Trail, marked by a small stone pillar engraved with the name, and headed deeper down into the reservation.
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| Weather observatory at the top of Great Blue Hill |
The Skyland Trail was well-marked with blue blazes for our entire loop. It and the rest of the trails were practically bone dry despite the heavy rains from the beginning of the week, with only the leaves on the ground a careful footing on some rocky sections being the only things to watch out for along the way. It was a steep, rocky drop off Great Blue Hill, with some good views of other hills in the reservation on the way down. Once off the hill, it was a pleasant stroll on softer ground in the woods with some solid fall colors still showing. After a little time through here it was yet another steep, rocky ascent to the top of the mostly viewless Houghton Hill, before we were headed down again and out across Hillside St. heading toward the park headquarters.
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| View coming down the Skyland Trail |
We took a little lunch break at the picnic tables by the park headquarters and then headed up what would be our steepest ascent of the day, the Skyland Trail route up Hancock Hill. Man! This short stretch was a relentless, rocky climb to the top that echoed many a tough stretch on the much mightier White Mountains on a much smaller scale. Talk about priming yourself for bigger climbs. This was it!
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| View from Hancock Hill |
Hancock Hill ended up having the best views of the day, with some great views right as we crested the Skyland Trail onto the summit ridge. We continued on the Skyland Trail across the hill until I noticed what looked like the Boston suburbs off to our right, so we took the side trail that headed that way to see if we would get a city view. Lo and behold, after a few minutes on this trail we came upon another side trail that gave us a great view of the Boston skyline framed by the trees in our immediate foreground. It was a neat site to be in such a natural place taking in a not so natural skyline. From there, we backtracked to our original side trail, saw yet another side trail coming off it, and followed it very briefly to a good view of the Boston Harbor. After enjoying this view it was all the way back to the Skyland Trail to continue our loop back to Great Blue Hill.
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| Peaking at the Boston skyline through the trees |
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| Boston Harbor view |
The drop off of Hancock Hill was once again steep and rocky leading to a nicer walk in the woods. The rambles over Hemenway and Wolcott Hills were still rocky, but much easier than our previous two. From Wolcott it was one final steep rocky staircase trail back up to the Eliot Tower, before we descended the Red Dot Trail we had started on to return to the museum parking lot.
The Blue Hills Reservation definitely exceeded my expectations in terms of the technicality of the trails. I had underestimated these small hills, thinking they'd be an easy ramble in the woods. On the contrary, this reservation ended up being a great spot to work on technique when handling rocky ascents and descents. It seems like it would be a perfect training ground for folks in the area wanting to build their skills before tackling the bigger mountains of New Hampshire. Plus, the interesting perspective of the Boston skyline was a fun summit find, making Blue Hills a unique spot surrounded by so much civilization.
