Rockport, Massachusetts
Halibut Point State Park
Photo: Chensiyuan, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
A flooded granite quarry, a World War II watchtower, tide pools on the ledges below, and on a clear day a mountain in Maine 40 miles away.
Written for ages 3–12.
Researched from this park's own sources. Nobody's walked it yet.
Read this bit out
For nearly a hundred years, people cut granite out of the ground here and carried it away to pave city streets and build bridges and buildings. When they stopped, rain and springs filled the huge hole with water. Down on the rocks by the sea there are tide pools with snails, hermit crabs and sea stars living in them. The tall tower was built in World War II to watch the sea. And on a clear day you can stand here and see a mountain forty miles away, in a completely different state.
One of your three free places, or the Explorer Pass. What that costs
Before you go
- Time there
- Plan on about an hour and a half at the park.
- Parking
- The lot is at 4 Gott Avenue. $5 with Massachusetts plates and $20 without, from late May to mid-October; free November through April. The YODEL app is accepted. In summer, once the lot is full it closes for two hours.
- Underfoot
- Wide gravel trails, about a mile around the quarry, then out onto open granite ledges above the sea. No swimming in the quarry, and no bikes or scooters. Open 8am to sunset, year round.
- Stroller
- A stroller works on some of it.
- Bathrooms
- There are bathrooms.
- Food
- Picnic areas, and room to picnic on the rocky ledges. No grills or fires.
21 challenges written for this place
A game deals seven to fifteen of them, so no two visits are alike.
5 things to spot, 4 things to work out and 3 things growing.
Every game includes this one
The Quarry
Find the enormous hole full of water. People drilled all that stone out and lifted it with giant cranes called derricks.
A few of the others
See Another State
On a clear day you can see a mountain forty miles away in Maine from here. Work out which lump on the horizon it is.
Islands Out There
On a clear day, look out to sea and find the islands. Some of them belong to Maine and some to New Hampshire.
A Whole World In A Puddle
Find a tide pool and work out how many living things are in that one puddle. Look closely, but leave every one of them where it is.
Nobody Broke That By Accident
Find a rock with an edge so straight a person must have cut it.
Watching For Enemies
Something here was built in wartime so people could watch the sea for enemies. Find it.
How Do You Move A Rock That Big
Stone cut here got carried away and built into things far from this coast. Work out how anybody moved it.
The rest are a surprise — that's the whole point.
Also around Cape Ann
Millbrook Meadow
Rockport
A four-acre park across from Rockport's Front Beach: a mill pond, a brook to follow toward the sea, a playground, and a three-ton granite whale to climb.
Ravenswood Park
Gloucester
Six hundred acres of Gloucester woods: giant fern-covered boulders, a boardwalk through a magnolia swamp, carriage paths, and an overlook to the harbor.
Play this at Halibut Point State Park
Free. Works with no signal once you're there.