QUICK SUMMARY: Excellent State Park with partially-paved bike trails, beautiful sights especially…read morein the Fall, and a great place to take portraits! The park is open from sun up to sun down. Parking is by a self-pay meter and is $5, entry to park itself is free. My boyfriend and I came here on a whim one crisp Saturday morning in September. We brought our mountain bikes and spent about two hours leisurely exploring the trails, which are paved only half of the time, but still well-maintained. There are many lush sights to see, both with colored/green trees and the Ipswich river (along the path) was a pretty sight as well, with turtles/ducks swimming nearby. We saw only a few people while on the trails, mainly people on bikes, but we did see some walkers as well. If you decide to walk, I would definitely suggest grabbing a trail map at the beginning of the trail, as there are many different routes along the way and it can get confusing without one. There is a giant treeless field at the center of the park which made for a great landscape for my boyfriend and me to take pictures using our tripod/camera. Overall, I would highly recommend this park for all ages/types of people!

Nice splash park for younger children, in a pretty setting. Nice changing rooms…read more We only stopped at the splash park, but as we drove through it looked like there were nice trails for walking. Google maps directed us the wrong way, to the southern entrance, which is now an exit only! We had to drive 10 minutes round to get to Northern entrance.

What a treasure. My…read moreson brought me here a cold early morning to meet the birds. We went and when we stood still and help some bird food in our hands, they came and ate out of them. The trails are well kept up and so good to be around. We found some of the layered ice pieces that look like Lacey ice. This is a great outing, even if you are not from around here. I think being there early (8 am) helped since we were alone on the trails. Check it out.

What a beautiful place! There are plenty of well-marked trails of different lengths; between the…read morevariety of habitats and the changing of the seasons, you could visit weekly for years and never quite explore the same place twice. The dozens of species of birds are not shy; the frogs, turtles, rabbits, red squirrels, chipmunks, etc., aren't all that shy either! It has a nicely set up learning center ( and classes) for kids, plus canoes for rental if that's your thing. Mandatory warnings: use bug spray and, especially, wear long pants to ward off ticks. And be prepared for a slightly tricky narrow road ending in an often-crowded parking lot. As for the cost: get yourself an Audubon membership and entry will be free, plus you'll be supporting good conservation work.

We had a lot of fun exploring the J.C. Phillips Nature Preserve. The old mansion ruins were really…read moreinteresting to look at, and the artistic graffiti made it a fun place to take photos. The rest was a typical wooded trail--peaceful and not difficult. Definitely worth visiting for the ruins!

Great place for a long or short walk with nice water views. Dog friendly and well maintained…read moretrails. The parking is decent as well unless it is crowded which is not too often.

there's not many places to park here only a couple of kinda-spots off the side of the road…read more although this place is not the largest, it has really nice variety in scenery! i'd recommend checking it out.

Nice flat trail, well maintained. Happy there was easy/free parking. Downfall is not much to see…read more Good choice if you're in the area, but I wouldn't go out of your way for this one.

I did this walk a few days ago on admittedly the hottest day of the year. Bad decision. I walked…read more2.5 miles from Beverly to Topsfield Center. The trail is quite flat and gravel cover. I primarily walked it to check out the scale model planners spaced appropriately down the trail from a Sun in Topsfield center. Each display was very informative and Topsfield Center is very quaint. But otherwise the trail is not very interesting and in the blazing heat, the lack of tree cover was very noticeable. Better to do this on a cooler cloudy day.

I love the safe off road walk. We saw duck, 3 snakes and many turtles. I'll bring my bike next time.read more

Absolutely gorgeous, peaceful, easy swamp trail walk. There is a small parking area off of…read moreTopsfield Road. Wide gravel trail paths head both directions and there are several walks to choose. I opted for the trail down to the swamp walk. It's about .3 of a mile to the swamp walk and then the swamp walk itself is about .3 of a mile. I did the swamp walk twice so my total walk twice around, there and back was 1.3 miles. Lots of shade on the trail to and from, but the swamp walk is mostly sun. The boardwalk areas are sturdy, but a little uneven and slanted in places so you do want to use some caution. There are several stops with benches to take in the scenery. The swamp walk is absolutely beautiful. So quiet and serene. I went in July and saw tons of turtles, birds and even a beaver!

Fantastic place to walk dogs and meet people. Easy marked trails. Great find on the way to…read moreBerkshires.

not super duper blown away in terms of the scenery/variety. nice and vast trails. a couple spots…read morealong the paths were covered in water and it'd be nice to have boardwalks there maybe.

Had a lovely fall weekend experience here recently. We went on one of their Sundays with live music…read moreand wood fired pizza. We started off taking a stroll around the property, the trails are a little confusing but it's pretty small so you're not likely to get that lost. It was beautiful and peaceful. We then checked out the farm store which is on the small side but has lots of local goods. The star of the show was definitely the wood fired pizza - we got the seasonal one which had some garlicky kale. It was delicious, the crust was awesome and it's so nice that it is all made from Appleton farms ingredients. The live music was also a fun touch (but REALLY loud if you were close). Was happy to spend an afternoon here!

This was a lovely afternoon trip in the spring. Lots of ambling trails throughout the farm to…read moreexplore. The creamery is home to the farm store during the pandemic, and it is quite small/1 family allowed in at a time. I did get a lemon cream bun and chocolate chip cookie, and there were a number of other pastries/little items to pick up in the creamery. You can also place an order online in advance and pick it up--their online store is quite expansive! Would be great to come back to explore more trails, have a picnic, roam around.

If you're traveling on I-95 and need to stop to stretch your legs (and maybe take the dog for a…read morewalk) this is a scenic area to walk. Take exit 78A (MA-133 Rowley) and in less than a mile you'll arrive. Be careful to slow down as the parking lot is somewhat hidden. Part of the Greenbelt properties, you can download the app to view the trails. However, this property is fairly small, and easy to navigate. You start by walking through a field, and then enter a wooded path. Here you loop by the pond and can see plenty of wildlife. We saw mallard ducks, Canadian geese, turtles, and massive beaver dams.

there's only a couple or few spots to park here. overall is a nice place to walk. there's some…read morewater views and woodsy trail loop.

Place is awesome. We went today canoeing and had a total blast. The only downfall are the young…read morestaff. They had one older girl and guy who were great and two younger boys who were very uninterested. They ended up forgetting to give us the pads for the canoe seats and man did we pay for that in the soreness department! They were only friendly at drop off trying to work for a tip. The river was excellent though. Sights were gorgeous and was a very nice paddle. I did not wear sneakers and did ok despite what I had heard. My only recommendation would be to pack some sort of picnic blanket because the places available to pull off for lunch have no tables or anything just grass and muck so something to sit on would've been great. Overall we had a great day and would use them again . And PS they take debit/credit which is awesome!

A small outfitter with an easy put in on the bend in the river. We were there late in the warm…read moreseason and it was quiet and the river was slow. I recommend it on that type of day for sure! Plenty of time for an easy paddle for two.