Leominster State Forest

March 22, 2020 Sunny

Leominster State Forest is a publicly owned forest that has several small ponds, numerous hiking trails, and also the Crow Hill ledges. We used the Crow Hill parking lot off of Route 31 for a short hike to the top of the ledges.

The trail enters the woods and starts a gradual ascent, passing by a stone wall.

Pretty soon the base of the ledges comes into view and it’s an impressive site, even from a distance.

We headed slightly to the left, where a trail lets you safely scramble to the top. The kids really enjoyed finding their own route upwards.

At the top, the trail turned sharply right and passed several viewpoints. The first was partially obscured by trees.

Continuing along the top of the ledges (but not too close to the edge!) you come upon a striking view to the southeast and the Crow Hills pond. Although we have seen the Boston skyline from the top of nearby Wachusett, we couldn’t find it here.

Looking toward the southwest you get a clear view of Wachusett Mountain and the ski runs. An interesting note on Wikipedia says that Native American tribes used this area for shelter and also to send smoke signals to neighboring tribes.

In any case, we rested a few minutes to enjoy the vistas and soak up the sun.

Following the trail to the north along the ledge provides other views of the ponds below. If you’re afraid of heights you will want to stay back from the edge.

At this point we followed a rocky trail with some helpfully placed rock steps to the base of the ledge.

From the base the cliffs towered above, slick in spots and with an icicle in others, even at this late time in spring.

Miles and I are looking at the carved names of hikers who came before us, some from the 1800s. Farther along we found a few hikers with gear who were planning to rock climb along the cliffs.

At this point we followed the trail back to the car and headed to the Crow Hills Pond to find a sunny spot for lunch before our next state park!

We all enjoyed this short hike for the variety and scenery packed into a small area.

• We enjoyed scrambling up the rocks to the Crow Hills Ledges and returning along the base. A short hike with a few interesting views of the park and ponds.
• The climbing was great fun and it’s a short trail, so there’s no boredom for the kids.
• It was funny when Ryan slipped on the rocks and almost fell off the cliff, but other than that, pretty uninteresting.
• It was fun climbing on the rocky cliff and the trail was short.
• The rocks were fun to climb on and there was a cliff.

For more information: Leominster State Forest official site