You want to see some fall foliage. But you don't want to get stuck in the bumper-to-bumper leaf-peeping crowds in New Hampshire and Vermont. Is there an alternative?

Indeed. Two foot trails -- one south of Boston, one north -- provide some excellent hiking, dramatic vistas, and as much foliage as you can possibly stand.

The more spectacular of the two, the southern route, takes you through Milton's Blue Hills, celebrated by John Adams as "the most sublime object of my imagination." There's a two-mile loop and an eight-mile loop. Each starts at the Trailside Museum and takes you to the summit of Great Blue Hill, where there's an old-fashioned stone observation tower and, nearby, a weather station that offers tours for a small fee. The longer trail takes you to the top of Houghton and Hancock Hills as well.

The northern route, the seven-mile Sky Line Trail, begins at the Middlesex Fells Reservation parking lot, in Medford, and courses through Stoneham and Winchester. Though the Sky Line Trail is more wooded than the Blue Hills, with fewer open views, there's an observation tower that gets you up above the tree tops.

The Blue Hills hikes and Sky Line Trails are described on the Web site of the Witch Trail Committee, www.witchtrail.com.