A Walk in the Woods, Great Blue Hill, Blue Hills Reservation, Milton, Massachusetts, USA

I made another trip to the Blue Hills Reservation to walk up Great Blue Hill.  As I mentioned a couple days ago, the reservation is a 7000 + acre property about 10 miles south of Boston. Laced with hiking trails and hills it provides a green oasis close to the big city and is managed by the Massachusetts Department of Conservation and Recreation (DCR). There are 22 hills within the 10 square miles of land. The highest point, Great Blue Hill, is 635 above sea level.  This is the view from the stone tower near the top looking northward at the city of Boston.

This is the view toward the east. Yes, we do have quite a few trees here even though surprisingly, Massachusetts is the third most densely populated of the United States (according to the 2010 Census). 

This stone tower viewpoint was built in the 1930's by the Civilian Conservation Corp. It is about a half hour walk uphill either along the paved service road or along the rocky trail.

It is a great old man cardio walk - steady uphill at a constant incline on a paved even surface. If you follow this private service road on foot to the top of the hill you'll find the Blue Hill Weather Observatory which began making weather observations in February 1885 and has continued uninterrupted to this day. It is the oldest continuously operating station in the nation.

The fall leaves are carpeting the forest.

In the millennia before the European conquest of this land, the Native Americans known as the Massachusetts, "people of the great hills," inhabited the area. Colonists settled here in the 1600's building farms and logging lumber. Today, the Boston area is recognized as the center of the known universe. (Of course, some might disagree).