Beech Tree Preserve

How curious must have been the swirling, restless geography on the west side of the lagoon before trees and houses! Pitches, slopes, rises and falls, ravines and bowls —and of the latter pair this preserve contains two of the neighborhood’s best. The turnpike sounds of the Edgartown Road fade fast as a hiker heads east from the trailhead and, a thousand or so paces later, the wind-up is a placid cobble-and-sand lagoon beach.