Governor Oliver Ames Estate - Easton, MA

This is a guest post from Kristen's husband, Scott:

With today being a holiday and Kristen needing to work, I took the opportunity to take the girls to the Governor Oliver Ames Estate in Easton, MA.  The Ames Estate is another Trustees property, and it was our second Trustees property visit during this long weekend.  There is no cost to visit, but Trustees memberships are encouraged.

The Ames Estate is similar to Bird Park with some paved trails and some natural unpaved trails.  When we have gone there for walks in the past, we usually do a loop starting at the main entrance toward the the Shovelshop Pond, with the Pine Grove extension, and then a wooded trail through the hemlock knoll toward the fish pond, which ends behind the main house.  That route, shown on the property map, is about a mile.

Our main focus today was sledding; the Ames Estate has an excellent sledding hill just behind the main building.  The hill can get very crowded, but if you arrive early enough, you can beat the crowds.  Today we arrived just after 9:00 AM and had the hill to ourselves for a little while before more groups arrived.  Once the hill started to get more crowded, we decided to go for a little walk down by the bocce court and by the Fish Pond.  

The Governor Ames Estate is one of our local favorites, and we have visited it many times in the past, including snowshoeing visit earlier this winter.  The trails at the Ames Estate are all manageable for young children, and much of the park is is wide open.  The park also seems to be a favorite for dogwalkers (leashes required), and in warmer months you often see many people fishing.







Here are some of Kristen's favorite pics from a prior, snowshoeing visit earlier this winter:




















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