Lilly Preserve
Lilly Preserve
For the Blue Loop, park at the entrance on Good Hill Road (Route 317) 2 miles east of the Roxbury Green. For most direct access to the Red Loop, use the Old Tophet Road entrance. This can be reached by continuing on Good Hill Road another mile past the first entrance, turning left onto Welton Road and then left onto Tophet Road for 0.5 miles to the parking lot.
Thomas Robert Lilly donated 128 acres to the Roxbury Land Trust in 1975. In 1980, Dione Todd Lilly Bowers gifted 4 acres to the preserve and Thomas R. Bowers and Stewart M. Bowers donated 8 more acres in 1981.
The Lilly Preserve’s Blue Loop is 1.5 miles and of moderate difficulty. It passes through marshes and wooded swampland near Jack’s Brook. Hikers may encounter cattle grazing in the field off Good Hill Road and will see mounds of tussock sedge and red maples.
The 1-mile Red Loop traverses the upper wooded portion of the preserve and features mixed hardwoods, an apple orchard, sawmill site, mill pond, historic stone walls and rock outcroppings. Of moderate difficulty, it includes some steep climbs.
From the Red Loop, a half-mile Yellow Trail connects to the Gavel Family Farm Preserve.
