new england
A nice feature of many Boston metro parks is that they are intentionally made adjacent to natural preservation space. Millennium Park in Boston is no exception. Interestingly, if you look at Millennium Park on a map, it looks far out from the city center, as if it were in the suburbs. In a prior time, this would have indeed been the case before West Roxbury and neighboring towns were annexed into Boston proper. West Roxbury itself was annexed back in 1874. As with various other parks in the Boston Metro, Millennium Park has been repurposed or restored on some level after becoming degraded or utilized for other purposes due to its proximity to the city. There is a massive hill that is contained within the park, and while it’s a beautiful green space today, it is actually an old landfill!
On top of the hill sits a soccer field and playground, and the rest of the hill is covered in mowed grass and surrounding paved trails. I wonder if trees don’t grow here because there’s trash underneath, or they keep it clear for recreational purposes! It’s an interesting setup because the hills themselves would perhaps only be good for sledding or rolling down the hill (as the kids do).
The part of the park closest to the road entrance actually sits adjacent to the Charles River (you apparently can’t escape this river in Boston). Like Auburndale Park, the shape of the river is much smaller here than closer to downtown. There is a convenient kayak launch right in the park that you can use for water recreation. The water was fairly calm when I visited in the fall and would be fairly easy for any skill level to try out.
The landfill is actually extremely large and takes quite a bit of time to walk around. If walking through the woods strikes your fancy, there is a path that distantly follows the path of the Charles towards the northwest. There is plenty of onsite parking at both the base of the hill and near the top of the landfill.