Jewell Hill (TTOR)

Jewell Hill (TTOR)

The Trustees of Reservations Crocker Road Ashby, Massachusetts 01431

Official Website
Jewell Hill map

About this Location

Featuring broad meadows and pastoral scenery, Jewell Hill offers opportunities for four seasons of outdoor recreation and an ecologically critical sweep of open space in Central Massachusetts. A placid country road bisects the landscape, purchased by the Crocker family in 1917 and shaped into an award-winning dairy farm by the 1950s. The property’s agricultural output shifted to hay production after the regional decline of the dairy industry, and its 296 acres, which abut 2,500 additional acres of watershed conservation land, continue to provide protection for the City of Fitchburg’s water supply as well as critical habitat to many species negotiating the changing climate. Just a stone’s throw from several busy cities and towns, Jewell Hill also provides a soothing natural escape for snowshoers, cross-country skiers, birders, and hikers.

Jewell Hill features a variety of habitats including hayfields and meadows, forested and open wetlands, streams and seeps, and hardwood and hemlock-dominated forests. This diversity of habitat types supports a great diversity of plants and wildlife, including bobolinks and barn swallows in the grasslands; indigo buntings, bears, and bobcats in the forest; and goldthread and painted trillium along wetland edges.

Notable Trails

After glimpsing the panorama of Mount Wachusett along the 0.7-mile Willard Trail, set out for the 1,411-foot Hudson Overlook. Hike to the summit through thickets of mountain laurel along the 0.6-mile Jewell Hill Trail, and when you reach the scenic overlook, look east over a landscape blanketed in the forest; on days free of clouds and haze, you’ll see the Boston skyline 45 miles in the distance. After, loop back to the former farmstead via Olaf’s Run and Crocker Farm Trail.

The AllTrails website has a description and map of a hike at Jewell Hill.

Features

  • Restrooms on site

  • Wheelchair accessible trail

  • Entrance fee

Content from Official Website

Last updated December 13, 2023