Living on the Wellesley/Natick line, I ventured 5 minutes up the road to Boulder Brook Reservation in Wellesley. Boulder Brook get its name from: A, there's a brook that runs through the property and B, the reservation is peppered with abnormally large glacial boulders.
I've hiked here a few times now, and love the property's differing terrain. There's a large meadow, stream crossings, forest, elevation gains, and vista points, all in a fairly short loop hike(under 2 miles)!
I parked on Elmwood rd. at Kelly Memorial park. The trail starts just past the parking area and is blazed with purple arrows. The trail passes alongside a brook and about 100 yards in you come across the first massive boulder thats just begging to be climbed! Eventually the trail comes out to a school/ballfield and staying left to the field, the trail picks up again down a paved way leading to the entrance of Boulder Brook Reservation. Still following the purple arrows, I came out to a huge meadow.
The day was hot, about 90 degrees, and the sun was baking the grass. The sweet smell reminded me of when I was a boy in the cornfields! Now I'm a born and bred massachusettsian with no ties to Iowa, however I spent many summers at Drumlin Farm camp, and we picked weeds in the cornfields. Now for all you left-wing yahoos out there, thinking child slave labor, well..... come to think of it, maybe it was!! However I do credit Drumlin Farm with much of my knowledge and appreciation of agriculture and nature! (Not to mention my large catalog of camp songs)!
Anyways, after crossing the meadow, I entered a forest and crossed a wooden planked brook. From here, the trail starts a very gradual incline and after a few hundred yards starts to rise sharply up a hill and over some glacial boulders. From the top of the hill/boulders, the trail took me to a small rock outcrop overlooking Wellesley and Natick.
All in all, for a short hike, this place really crams it in and delivers an awesome quickie!!
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