The land around St Petersburg is almost perfectly flat, so any hill gets noticed. The Duderhof Heights, a pair of wooded hills rising south of the city near Krasnoye Selo, are the highest ground for many kilometres around, with the higher one, Voronya Gora or Crow Hill, reaching a little under two hundred metres above sea level. From the top, on a clear day, you can see the gilded domes of the city and the waters of the Gulf of Finland.
The hills have been a popular place for walks and picnics since the nineteenth century, when Krasnoye Selo was the site of a large military camp where the imperial guard held summer manoeuvres. Tsar Nicholas I and his successors reviewed the troops here, and the area was dotted with officers' dachas. Later, during the Second World War, the heights became one of the key points of the Leningrad front. German forces captured them in 1941 and used them as an observation post and artillery position to bombard the city during the siege, which lasted nearly nine hundred days. They were recaptured in January 1944, during the operation that ended the blockade.
The area is now a nature reserve, with forests of oak, maple and lime that are unusual this far north, along with rare plants and insects. The slopes are steep for this region, and the paths through the woods are pleasant on a summer day.
Riding here means dealing with the traffic of a metropolis. The roads from St Petersburg to Krasnoye Selo and the surrounding towns are busy, with trucks, buses and cars, and the surfaces can be rough, with potholes and tram tracks. Once you are out of the city, the roads become quieter, but still mostly flat and straight. The best season is summer, from June to August, when the white nights bring daylight late into the evening. Winters are long, cold and snowy.
Krasnoye Selo, about seven kilometres away, has fuel, shops and food. The palaces of Peterhof, Strelna and Gatchina are all within easy reach, and the Trinity-Sergius Hermitage, a monastery on the shore of the Gulf of Finland at Strelna, is a peaceful place to visit. Travellers should check current entry, visa and insurance requirements carefully before planning a trip.