Hampstead Heath's hills and not-completely-groomed meadows and woodlands made it a favorite of mine and my guests. I have Hal to thank for making it a destination, since I hadn't even heard of it before his visit. It was also neat to get to see unfamiliar parts of London on the bus ride to it. Here are the blog posts covering my two visits to the Heath: September visit • October visit. And Hal has some comments about it on his blog, too.

The park isn't as heavily tended as the "in-town" parks, but it does have paths—lots of 'em (Hal and I got a bit lost on my first visit!). Here is one of the main walkways, and a look at a picturesque dead tree. I don't think you'd find a dead tree on the ground anywhere in Hyde Park, but doesn't this one make an attractive picture?

There are some really big live trees in the park, and they often are found in nice groupings like these. One gets the impression that they weren't planted this way, but that the rest of a forest was cleared away from around them.

One of the park's main features is Parliament Hill, reputed to have the best panoramic views of London. It did take Hal and me a while to find it on my first visit, as his GPS seemed to go a little haywire in the "wilderness" of the Heath. But we eventually got to the top, and on my second visit we didn't have as much difficulty. The views are worth any efforts, however. Here is a sample:

And here's what the hill looks like from the path below, along with a view looking west from near the summit, towards a less developed area than the intense urban-scape of the southward view shown above:

We took a lot more pictures during both trips to the Heath. You can see them all in this Flickr set.

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