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Today, Becky and I took advantage of the very nice weather to go on a hike at the ***Blue Hills Reservation|http://www.mass.gov/dcr/parks/metroboston/blue.htm*** just south of Boston. Blue Hills was one of the first areas purchased as part of the Metropolitan Parks Commission in 1893. It is now a part of the Massachusetts ***DCR|http://www.mass.gov/dcr/*** system of parks and preserved lands.

We did the first hike on ***Ranger Pete’s Suggested Hikes|http://www.mass.gov/dcr/parks/metroboston/trailwatch/rangerpete.htm***. This was a good warmup hike for the season. The weather was perfect, and the length and difficulty of the hike were sufficient so that we felt like we got a good workout. There are some nice views of Boston and the surrounding area from the top of the various hills in the Blue Hills range. Just a warning to anyone who is interested in attempting it, there are a number of steep descents with some VERY loose rocks, so watch your footing.

Interesting side note: The top of Great Blue Hill is home to the ***Blue Hill Meteorological Observatory|http://www.bluehill.org/***. The BHMO is the oldest continuously operating weather observatory in the United States. The first reading was taken on January 31, 1885, and readings have been taken continuously ever since.

I took a few ***handfuls of photos|http://gallery.prwdot.org/blue_hills?page=1*** on the hike (of course!).