To Do Today: Visit Blue Hills Reservation
Hiking, camping, swimming, and more within minutes of downtown Boston
To Do Today: Visit Blue Hills Reservation
Hike, camp, swim, and more just a T ride south of Boston
What?
Massachusetts Department of Conservation & Recreation’s Blue Hills Reservation, a 7,000-acre oasis perfect for kayaking, canoeing, swimming, hiking, mountain biking, and more.
When?
The reservation is open for hiking, biking, and picnicking from dawn to dusk. The designated swimming area is open on weekends through June 18, and daily from June 19 to Labor Day, from 10 am to 6 pm. Parking lots close at 8 pm unless otherwise noted.
Where?
Visitor parking is available at the Houghton’s Pond Recreation Area, 840 Hillside St., Milton. Reachable from the parking area is a 24-acre pond and accessible beach, as well as trails for hiking and biking.
Visitors can get to the Great Blue Hill and Houghton’s Pond sections of the reservation via public transportation by taking an MBTA Red Line train to Ashmont and transferring to the high-speed line to Mattapan. From there, the MBTA 716 bus to Canton services the Blue Hills Trailside Museum and Great Blue Hill on Route MA-138. For the Houghton’s Pond area, exit the bus a few stops away at Royall St @ JW Foster BLVD. Cross Washington Street onto Blue Hill River Road and walk a little over a mile east on Hillside Street. Find a trail map and guide here.
How much?
Parking is free at the Houghton’s Pond lot.
Why should I go?
Hiking enthusiasts owe a debt of gratitude to the Metropolitan Park Commission of 1893, which had the foresight to set aside the 7,000 acres known as the Blue Hills Reservation for public use, making it possible for Bostonians to flee the city on a whim for a slice of wilderness as close as a suburban shopping mall.
About a 30-minute drive from downtown Boston, with 125 miles of trails, the reservation stretches over sections of Quincy, Dedham, Braintree, Canton, Milton, and Randolph. In summer, the 22 hills are carpeted in green, with rocky outcrops affording sweeping views of the Boston skyline. Great Blue Hill, the highest at 635 feet, looms over a diverse expanse of bottomland forest, marsh, swamp, and Houghton’s Pond, where swimming is permitted. Rich in archaeological legacies of colonial and early American farmers and quarry workers, the Blue Hills were home to the Native American Massachusett—which means “People of the Great Hill”—tribe for many centuries. With its varied terrain, coyotes, copperhead snakes, turkey vultures, and the endangered timber rattlesnake can all be found on the reservation. The Blue Hill Observatory and Science Center, which sits at the top of Great Blue Hill, is a National Historic Landmark and is open to visitors. The observatory has kept the longest continuous daily weather record in the United States, dating back to 1885. The Blue Hills Trailside Museum, the interpretive center for the reservation, is managed by the Massachusetts Audubon Society.
Some of the many other ways to enjoy the Blue Hills: canoeing on Ponkapoag Pond and the Neponset River, camping in Appalachian Mountain Club cabins, fishing (state license required), mountain biking in designated areas, and rock climbing at the Quincy Quarries Reservation historic site.
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