Hiking is a great way to give your kids the benefit of exercise and the outdoors.  But when you have kids of different ages or you’re worried you’ll have to carry them home (or deal with tantrums), you might find it easier to try a stroller-friendly hike in the Blue Hills.  Most hikes are not stroller friendly, but here are two that are definitely stroller-friendly.  Both start from Houghton’s Pond parking lot, 840 Hillside St, Milton.

Even if you’ve hiked around Houghton’s Pond many times, you may never have found the trail called Old Route 128.  You’ll start this stroller-friendly hike in the Blue Hills at the Houghton’s Pond main parking lot.

Make your way past the playground and visitor center on your left and continue as you pass the beach on your right.  You’ll follow the Yellow dot trail as it turns to go around the pond.  Continue on the trail just a minute until you see picnic tables and grills.  Walk through or around the picnic tables.  At the other side in the trees, you will find a trail opening.  Take the trail (which is dirt, but still stroller-friendly) until you arrive at a paved road.  Take a left on the road and continue as long as you’d like and turn around.  The paved road ends after about a mile.  If you’d like a one hour stroller-friendly hike, however, you’ll turn around long before you reach the end.

Bugbee path is another stroller-friendly hike in the Blue Hills.  Start at Houghton’s Pond and continue in the same direction as the above hike, passing the playground and visitor center on your left and continuing past the beach on your right.  The path is a loop with a small hill.  For a gentler hike up the hill, look for marker 2053 on the left as you get to the end of the lake.  Follow the path as it goes up and around, past marker 2070 and back down towards the lake.  When you get to the bulletin board with the map, you’ll start following the green dots, which will take you back to the pond.  Follow the path with the pond to your left until you arrive at the visitor center and parking lot again.