Great Brook Farm State Park
Access: Parking lots and trails off North Road.
Parking: North Road and Lowell Road.
Great Brook has 17 miles of trails on 900 acres (Park Headquarters(1)). Created in the 1970s with the purchase of the Farnham W. Smith farm, it is a working dairy farm(2) , with a seasonal ice cream stand in the milking barn. A ski-rental concession(3) in the lot off Lowell Road grooms trails for cross-country skiing in winter. Mountain biking is popular here, and the park is a major equestrian center. North Bridge Hunt Club maintains 38 fixed jumps and also conducts occasional drag foxhunts and hunter pace events.
Parklands include fields, forest, streams, ponds, and the T ophet Swamp. Interesting sites and geological features include a rock on which Native Americans ground corn(4), a stone seat facing the east, and a cave formed by a fractured glacial erratic boulder(5) formerly used as a den by the last known wolves in Carlisle. At 'The City'(6) numerous cellar holes mark homes for workers at the site of an early mill. A hilltop cellar hole near the Grinding Rock marks 'The Garrison'(7) an early, fortified building that may have protected settlers from 'unfriendly' natives. The Farnham Smith cabin(8) sits by a millpond near the Canoe launch and is occasionally rented for activities and seminars. Trails to the west of Lowell Road provide access to the Otter Slide Trail, the Cranberry Bog and Old Morse Road.
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