60 Hikes Within 60 Miles: Boston: Including Coastal and Interior Regions and New Hampshire

It’s Time to Take a Hike!

The best way to experience Boston is by hiking it! Get outdoors with local authors and hiking experts Lafe Low and Helen Weatherall as they help you find and enjoy the top hikes within 60 miles of Beantown. A perfect blend of popular trails and hidden gems, the selected trails transport you to scenic overlooks, wildlife hot spots, and historical settings that renew your spirit and recharge your body.

See Boston’s stellar views from the Skyline Trail at Blues Hills Reservation. Spend hours exploring Purgatory Chasm’s dramatic cliffs and rock formations. Enjoy a peaceful, meditative hike on Spectacle Island out in the Boston Harbor. Summit eastern Massachusetts’ highest mountain at the Wachusett Mountain State Reservation. With lifelong New Englanders Lafe Low and Helen Weatherall as your guides, you’ll learn about the area and experience nature through 60 of Boston’s best hikes!

Each hike description features key at-a-glance information on distance, difficulty, scenery, traffic, hiking time, and more, so you can quickly and easily learn about each trail. Detailed directions, GPS-based trail maps, and elevation profiles help to ensure that you know where you are and where you’re going. Tips on nearby activities further enhance your enjoyment of every outing. Whether you’re a local looking for new places to explore or a visitor to the area, 60 Hikes Within 60 Miles: Boston provides plenty of options for a couple hours or a full day of adventure, all within about an hour from Boston and the surrounding communities.

Lafe Low is a lifelong New Englander. He spends nearly all his free time outside skiing, hiking, skiing, camping, skiing, kayaking, skiing... you get the picture. He has nearly reached his goal of having his garage look like an REI or EMS basement sale. He has worked as a writer and editor for decades, launching his own magazine, Explore New England, in 1995. After that, he went on to be the editor of Outdoor Adventure. Most of his career has been with various technology and business publications. The tech stuff pays the bills; the outdoor stuff feeds the soul. He is also the author of Best Tent Camping: New England (fourth edition) and Best Hikes of the Appalachian Trail: New England.

Helen Weatherall is a writer, sculptor, and environmentalist who prefers to spend her time outdoors. Having explored wildlands from Mount Washington to Montana, the Amazon to Sri Lanka, and much in between, Weatherall now lives in Ipswich, Massachusetts, with her husband, cat, and terrier.