F. Gilbert Hills State Forest - February 6, 2022

The crew at Lookout Rock

It was a cold and icy morning, but the Papa Joe hike was just a half-hour from my house at the F. Gilbert Hills State Forest, so I decided to join.

The F. Gilbert Hills State Forest (previously known as Foxboro State Forest) is a 1,000-acre site with 23-miles of trails in the towns of Foxborough and Wrentham. It is adjacent to the Harold B. Clark Town Forest to the north, and connects to Wrentham State Forest to the west. The park is also part of the 30-mile Warner Trail that stretches from Sharon to Diamond Hill.

Trail Hut

We headed north from the main entrance on Mill Street in Foxboro to Sunset Lake, and then west cutting through the Harold B. Clark Town Forest to High Rock and the EMS radio tower. The park is a maze of trails dotted with hundreds of glacial erratics. We stopped for a picture at one of the largest – Lookout Rock.

From there, we headed south on a section of the Warner Trail that includes the Stone Staircase - one of many structures built on the site by the Civil Conservation Corps (CCC) in the 1930’s. We took a short detour to Sunset Ledge, which has great views of the Wrentham Hills and even Diamond Hill to the southwest.

Dolmen Rock

We then passed some unique stone structures that some believe were made by the Native Americans. Dolmen Rock is a large, flat boulder sitting on three small stones on top of a large exposed ledge that that may have been used as an altar. Not far away are four equidistant rocks that align due north. They could have been dropped by the glacier, but some believe that would be too much of a coincidence.

From there we followed a maze of trails back to the cars. The hike was originally planned to be about 5-miles, but with detours it ended up being closer to 6-miles.

Links:

My Pictures

F. Gilbert Hills State Forest

F. Gilbert Hills Trail Map

Warner Trail
Warner Trail Guidebook