At Whitney and Thayer Woods step back in time to woodlands dotted with glacial erratics and vernal pools, featuring bridges over streams, carefully sited benches, a hermit's shelter, and a secluded holly grove. 

Around 1904, American industrialist Henry M. Whitney began purchasing parcels of abandoned farmland to create a private estate. The Whitney Woods Association later acquired much of the estate and donated more than 600 acres to The Trustees in 1933, followed by Thayer Woods a decade later.

Glacial erratics dot the landscape, including a grouping called Ode’s Den, named after Theodore “Ode” Pritchard, a hermit who lived under one of the boulders after losing his home in 1830. Bigelow Boulder honors the author of the first volume of The Narrative History of Cohasset. The American holly grove is a delightful spot and, in spring, the Milliken Memorial Path, a “wild garden” planted in the 1920s in memory of Mabel Minott Milliken, blooms beautifully with rhododendrons and azaleas.

The adjacent, 62-acre Turkey Hill is co-managed with the Towns of Cohasset and Hingham, and has a 187-foot summit with a spectacular view of Cohasset Harbor  A cinder block building is all that remains of an anti-missile radar control station sited here during the Cold War to thwart a potential nuclear attack by the Soviet Union.

Amble along 10 miles of carriage roads through resurgent hardwood forests and into open fields, catching spectacular vistas of the South Shore and Boston skyline along the way.

Cross the street to family-friendly Weir River Farm and get up close with horses, sheep, and chickens.

The AllTrails website has descriptions and maps of hikes at Whitney and Thayer Woods.