LocationsMassachusetts
Carlisle, Massachusetts
The Greenough Land
Two hundred and forty acres of upland and wetland woods around a twenty-one-acre pond that averages barely two feet deep, with fields, rock outcrops and a brook running through the middle of it.
Researched from this park's own sources. Nobody's walked it yet.
Read this bit out
Greenough Pond is not really a pond. A man called Henry Greenough built an earthen dam across Page's Brook, sometime before 1930, because he wanted ducks and geese to stop here. The water backed up behind it and covered twenty-one acres, and it is still barely two feet deep almost all the way across — you could walk most of it, if you were allowed to. Every heron and every duck out there is on it because somebody nearly a hundred years ago wanted to watch birds.
One of your three free places, or the Explorer Pass. What that costs
Before you go
- Time there
- Plan on about 2 hours at the park.
- Parking
- Free town conservation land. Two parking lots, both on Maple Street: the south lot just south of the Brook Street junction, the north lot just north of the East Street junction. There is a trail map on the kiosk in the north lot.
- Underfoot
- A loop of the property is a good hour, through forest, past water and out along the fields. Wooded uplands with rock outcrops, wooded wetlands, and Page's Brook running through. It joins the Great Meadows refuge next door, and a much longer walk can be made that way.
- Stroller
- A stroller works on some of it.
22 challenges written for this place
A game deals seven to fifteen of them, so no two visits are alike.
Every game includes this one
Greenough Pond
Get to the pond and stand where you can see across it.
A few of the others
The Dam That Made It
Find the earth dam that holds the pond back.
Across The Water
One photo of everybody with the pond behind them.
Out In The Field
One photo of everybody standing in the open field.
Their Turn
Hand the phone to the youngest. They take one picture of whatever they want.
Twenty-One Acres, Two Feet Deep
This pond covers twenty-one acres and is barely two feet deep almost all the way across. Work out what that means for the birds on it.
Why Somebody Wanted Ducks
A man built the dam before 1930 because he wanted waterfowl to stop here. Decide whether it worked.
The rest are a surprise — that's the whole point.
Play this at The Greenough Land
Free. Works with no signal once you're there.