Start of the Great Blue Hill Trail
The start of the climb up the highest hill in Greater Boston
The story
Before you is the start of the Red Dot Trail. It leads up Great Blue Hill, the highest hill in Greater Boston: 635 feet, about 194 meters. The hill is part of the Blue Hills Reservation, about seven thousand acres, roughly 2,800 hectares, of woods and rock south of the city. The reservation was created in 1893. English colonists gave the hill its name: from the sea, its granite slopes looked blue. The local Native people also used this hill as a landmark. They were called the “people at the large hill,” in English the Massachusett. The state takes its name from them. Next to the parking lot is the Trailside Museum, which opened in 1959. The trail is marked with red dots. It is steep and rocky: about a kilometer of climbing to the tower at the summit.
Visiting
Trailside Museum: 1904 Canton Avenue (Route 138), Milton. The reservation is open every day from dawn to dusk. Dogs on leash only.
On the trail
- Great Blue Hill — about 1.6 miles (2.5 km) round trip, 1–1.5 h
Sources
- Massachusetts Department of Conservation and Recreation (DCR) — Blue Hills color-coded trails: Great Blue Hill Red Dot, from the kiosk at the Trailside Museum south lot, 1.32 miles round trip, 1–1.5 h, moderately strenuous, rocky
- Friends of the Blue Hills — Great Blue Hill: the Red Dot Trail from the Trailside Museum, marked by red dots; Mount Monadnock visible on a clear day
- Wikipedia — Great Blue Hill: 635 feet, the name, the Massachusett people, snakes
- Wikipedia — Blue Hills Reservation: about 7,000 acres, since 1893, Trailside Museum
- DCR — Blue Hills Reservation: open dawn to dusk, dogs on leash only
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