Snake Den, named for a sinuous natural rock feature, is one of Rhode Island's most interesting trails for folks who are interested in geology. Especially in the northern part of the park you'll find very large (50 to 60 feet) ...

Wa! Wa! WaaaaaCHUsett! If you lived in New England in the 1990s you knew the jingle of central Massachusetts' biggest ski area by heart. It was heavily advertised during the season and if you didn't know quite exactly where it ...

The first thing to know about Douglas State Forest is that the coordinates stored in POTA's database will drop you in the middle of a road with no obvious sign of a park anywhere. Keep going, in a mile or ...

I've hiked Gilbert Hills for many years, long before I became active with POTA. One reason is that it's close to my QTH, and Gilbert Hills and nearby US-8383 Wrentham State Forest (it's right across the street from Gilbert Hills) ...

F. Gilbert Hills State Forest (Foxboro MA) is full of interesting stone features that span its history. The CCC was active here in the 1930s, and you'll see their handiwork in water holes, roads, and trails, and there are two ...

I feel bad for Sutton State Forest. Don't get me wrong, it is a beautiful site, and it's big, too, coming in at around 1,500 acres. There are several lovely trails and quite a lot to see, really, in terms ...

I have such mixed feelings about Beartown State Forest, located near Lee, Massachusetts, in the southwest corner of the state. I've been there twice now, once on a chilly March day, and again on a spectacular fall day in mid-September ...

Upton State Forest, specifically Pratt Pond which nestles on its southern border, is the most significant geographical location in the entire Commonwealth of Massachusetts. This is because Pratt Pond is the source for nearly every major river in eastern and ...

Just 8 acres perched on a rubble pile ...

I'm not sure that I've ever been in the woods with more dead people than at Wickaboxet. For the most part they are a quiet bunch, mainly settler families who came here starting around 1750 to what was then the ...

For some reason I thought it would be an easy thing to drive out to the summit of Mt. Greylock in Adams, three hours to my west in the Berkshires of Massachusetts, do a quick POTA + SOTA activation, and ...

You don't so much summit Mt. Tom as notice that you've been walking on flat ground for a while. It tops out at just 400-something feet, and the views are somewhat obscured by high brush and knots of scrubby pine ...

I did something at Big River WMA in West Greenwich, Rhode Island, that I very rarely do these days: I wandered. I entered the WMA on the east side, along Hopkins Hill Road at Tarbox Pond. This was due to ...

Over the weekend I activated two wildlife management areas, one in Rhode Island and one in Massachusetts. I'd never really paid much attention to WMAs, but POTA has really brought them to the top of my list for both ham ...

JL Curran is primarily a fishing site, with two ponds that are stocked by the RI environmental agency. It's relatively small, around 300 acres including the ponds. There are two small parking areas on the east side of the park, ...

In a remote corner of New England, three state boundaries meet, commemorated by a four-foot granite pillar. It's one of those rare locations where you can walk along with one foot in one state and your other in another! ...

I stacked firewood most of the morning and decided to reward myself with an activation. I packed up the rig and a lunch and headed for Rhode Island and the Blackstone River Valley National Historical Park (whew!). It was my ...

At just six acres, this might qualify as the smallest POTA reference I've activated. I had great expectations going in – this is a small park on the site of the former Canton Airport, and on a satellite view you ...

Beaver Brook is really three separate parks, all under one name and POTA reference number. Most conspicuously, just off Trapelo Road in Belmont is a playground and spray deck—not the best POTA site in summer but it does have a ...

When you ask people in Boston about the Blue Hills, many will tell you that they were built up during the expansion of the young city as the harbor was dredged. One has visions of long trains of horse-drawn carts ...