I started out at around 8 this morning, with my destination town being Clinton. Driving along Boylston Street in in Clinton, I saw several beautiful views of
Wachusett Reservoir, shown below.
My actual destination was the
Wachusett Dam which holds up the reservoir, and is located at the junction of Boylston Street with River Road. There are a few unmarked parking spots here, although I just decided to pull off on the side of the road when I spotted the dam. The top of the dam is no longer open to the public to walk across, but the views from there are pretty amazing as you will see below.
Walking down to the base of the dam was a pretty steep journey, but well worth the effort to see the fountain at the bottom.
Back on the road into downtown Clinton, before Boylston Street becomes Chestnut Street, I crossed a bridge with yet another beautiful view of the lake downstream of the dam.
Another water body in Clinton was
South Meadow Pond, found along South Meadow Road near its intersection with Sprague Road.
Central Park in downtown Clinton is a beautiful place to have a picnic, with fountains and surrounded by many historical buildings.
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Town Hall,
242 Church Street |
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First Baptist and First Congregational
Churches |
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| War Memorial |
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The Foster House,
271 Church Street |
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St. Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church,
132 School Street |
Finally done with Clinton, I went to Berlin and was unable to find anything nice to capture there. I then remembered that I always passed by a particular unused bridge in Northborough that I always thought was nice but never took pictures of, so I went off in search of it, and fortunately happened to pass by it on the way to the town center. There happened to be a heron hunting for lunch in the Assabet River Reservoir beside Hudson Street over which the
Wachusett Aqueduct Bridge spans, so I took some pictures of it too.
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| Wachusett Aqueduct |
I also saw the war memorials on Pierce Street and Hudson Street.
Moving on, my trips through Hudson and Marlborough were pretty uneventful, and things got interesting only when I entered Southborough.
Sudbury Reservoir was where I spotted my first swans, and I had some great scenes along Cordaville Road as well. Pictures follow.
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| Wildlife at Sudbury Reservoir |
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| Views from Cordaville Road |
The town common on Common Street and Main Street was pretty scenic as well, with the cannons, war monuments and historical buildings, although not quite as impressive as Clinton in my opinion.
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| War monuments at the town common |
The last place I visited for the day was
Hopkinton State Park in Hopkinton, which is mostly in Ashland. My advice is that you come early to this place, because it gets full of people very quickly because of the beach within the park, and by the time I arrived in the afternoon, they had closed off most of the roads. I had to park near the main entrance and walk the rest of the way. The route I took along the roads is shown below highlighted in pink.
I walked all the way to the swimming pond, which had a pretty good view of the dam from afar. There were a lot of families having barbecues and kids enjoying themselves on the beach and in the pond. I climbed up the dam to see the other side the Hopkinton Reservoir, and did not regret the effort. Pictures follow.
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| Views of the beach and the swimming pond from below |
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| Views from atop the dam |
Views of Hopkinton Reservoir
With all the walking I had to do at Hopkinton State Park, I decided to call it a day at 3 pm. Oh well, till Independence Day then.
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