If you are interested in how they built the pyramids...

[Not rock pile related] A son writes:
Here's a pretty cool new theory for how the pyramids were constructed:
http://nextstopmagazine.com/Article/2014/1/12/How-the-Pyramids-Were-Really-Built-A-Working-Theory

Mass GIS OLIVER system

Reader Russ mentions that this is not LIDAR, but it is a welcome addition to the information on where to find non-private lands:

Thought this might be of interest to you if you haven't seen it.

http://maps.massgis.state.ma.us/map_ol/oliver.php

Woodbrige CT...game on!

Those look like good places to explore. Let's look there.

Two Bits about Woodbridge CT

It happens from time to time that while looking for something else I find interesting little bits about something entirely different, cleverly disguised in the tables of contents in the plain text format at Google Books as: THE TOWN OF woonnRmuE.  in: The History of New Haven County, Connecticut, Volume 2  edited by John L. Rockey, W. W. Preston, 1892 

"Though the Judges' cave on West Rock is just without the limits of the town, still there are several locations which have a historic interest as places to which the regicides fled, or where they secreted themselves, and were aided by the early settlers of Woodbridge. There are several places which bear names evidently derived from their having been the residence of the exiles, such as the “Lodge," the “Harbor," the “Spring," " Hatchet's Harbor," and others. Of these places the Lodge was probably the one most frequented by them. This was in the northwest part of the town. Reverend I. P. Warren, in his history of the three judges, thus speaks of it: “Here by the side of a ledge of rocks, some 20 feet high was built a cabin of stone, 9 by 10 feet in dimension and covered over by trunks and leaves of trees. From the top of the ledge is a fine view of the city and Long Island sound, with the intervening villages and scattered farms and dwellings. A little spring of clear water issues from the crevices of a rock a few rods distant." “This," says President Stiles, at one time president of Yale College, “ was undoubtedly their great and principal lodge." The “Harbor" was about three quarters of a mile above Halsted Bishop's, on the stream across which the New Haven Water Company have built their large dam. Another hiding place was with Mr. Richard Sperry, the ancestor of the Sperrys, once so numerous on the flat known as “Sperry's Farm." It is evident that to Woodbridge and its inhabitants, as much as to any other place or people, the regicides owed their escape from the emissaries of Charles the Second, who had come over from England to apprehend them..."

If someone's detective work led them to believe this was the "twenty feet high" "stone cabin" described above as The Lodge, I would seek a second opinion of a second detective:

"Stephen Peck Perkins learned the mason's trade and became a prominent contractor in the city. He was a skillful and thorough, workman. There was never a question but that work entrusted to him would be done well. He retired from business and built an elegant villa in his native town near the old homestead of his childhood..." 

The old Peck homestead of his childhood?

Note Peck Hill Road in the distance...

More: http://rockpiles.blogspot.com/search?q=woodbridge

Too Much More: http://wakinguponturtleisland.blogspot.com/search?q=woodbridge

More pics from Codman Hill, Harvard

This is a site I have discussed before (scroll down)

 Went there with some friends around Christmas

A somewhat level hilltop with a broad view of the valley of Beaver Brook and Elizabeth Brook (this is the valley with the "Boxborough Esker", written about in Manitou).

Hard to escape a sense of geometry:

Note the quartz to upper right of the niche:

Here are three parallel structures: a gap pile, a sort of terrace, and another older terrace:

 The parallelism matches the topography. Closer up:

Note the piece of quartz at the far end of this one, one of my all-time favorite rock piles:

A more decrepit version of same (without quartz)

 One of the nicest and best preserved piles there

Here is something older, a crescent with quartz at the far end (a bit more" Wachusetts"'y):

Here is one I always think of as an effigy:

 Some final examples of smaller piles with quartz:

And in the gully east of the house, separate from the rest of the hill, one big mound:

Waiting for Snow Melt

I find myself wondering "What Stone Feature shows up well in a foot or more of snow?"
A west facing outcrop is one such place:
http://wakinguponturtleisland.blogspot.com/2014/02/waiting-for-snow-melt.html

Small "box" piles on support

I referred to this pile in a comment earlier. So this is for reference, a small rectangular rock piles with hollow, on support from Codman Hill in Harvard (end of Murray Ln):

There were others on Kezar Hill in Shirley. Similar piles are shown from Equinunk PA. Not too different from Brown Hill and Scott Reservoir. Also some in Billerica here (and scroll down).

Equinunk, PA Ledges and Caves

More from reader John P:

Equinunk, PA Cairns

Reader John P. writes:

Hi. we live in Equinunk ,PA. along the Delaware River in Northeastern PA.

We found some stone cairns and some more rock formations, they are said to be from 1000 years ago. I have found other sites here with more and also a large area that I have not been able to explore a lot of shelter areas and openings that I can see along a rock ledge.

I am very interested finding out more about the history of these, no one seems to be able to answer.

I have attached some photos, and hope that you may be able to help. I will send a 2nd email with more photos.

Sinking Creek Mountain VA

https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhuWnjbCzjE3TM_5uiR2PSP5c3yFasjdKWjDiIvad016X4ube04KwX_6Z-EQNz-iUwpYqGi-53kXk2JPf59u6rOM6ZJ8Z-B5WGdPVoy42eRMHLqz4v2IYr9UmF6lEqPztMvvkfB0Q/s1600/IMG_6712.JPG

“Along the ridge I passed a pile of rocks, not randomly scattered but intentional…then another… then another.  My ATC Trail Guide calls this area Bruisers Knob and explains that farmers cleared fields on the mountaintop, stacking them to make way for crops and for other uses.  I’ve seen long stacked stone walls and fences in the woods before, but not dozens of piles of rocks in such close proximity…Some stacks were quite neat, as though they had been completed recently…”

https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg4vVLrR_u3AjfsdguaqKzrA2gI2JcM9HiWyqmNkQyN9OlfaGmRbwn6eqqVkTvvn8WT3sMSGEnPs66ETjaEAeny_SvQ-6P5D2TpUMwg95PMoGmu9LEHSkSK__wwgibdS39M61laQA/s1600/IMG_6716.JPG

More: http://smokyscout.blogspot.com/2014/02/at-project-in-va-sinking-creek-mountain.html

One of hundreds of 'cairns' or rock piles built by farmers clearing the land on the spine of Sinking Creek Mountain:

http://www.panoramio.com/photo/64648803

http://thesga.org/wp-content/uploads/1990/11/gresham_historic_rock_piling.pdf

http://www.wvgazettemail.com/Outdoors/200911140679?display=print