Myles Standish State Forest, Massachusetts, United States

4Stefania D 5:00 PM Jan 30, 2020

Peaceful and Beautiful Hike
This is a huge park. We visited this park in the late fall. Since it was Kate in the season, there was no fee to enter. During the busy time, I think Massachusetts residents pay a fee to park. It was a beautiful November day and we pretty much had the park to ourselves. We definitely want to go back to sample the bike trails and maybe rent a kayak. It is in close proximity to Plymouth downtown, too, so we were able to find a cute little restaurant for a farm to table lunch.

3Sara E 5:00 PM May 24, 2015

The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly
Visited this park the week before Memorial Day weekend. Stayed seven days. The Good: Huge state park (14,000+ acres) with miles of paved bike trails, equestrian trails and walking trails winding through miles of pine/oak forest, sandy-bottom kettle ponds and several camping loops spread out over a huge area. We camped in Charge Pond area F, but explored the Fearing Pond loop, Barrett Pond loop and area E in the Charge Pond loop. Barrett and Fearing have a few pondside sites, several smallish, not very level and close together (not great for big RVs). The two Charge Pond loops we explored were a little more rig-friendly with some space in between campsites, many quite level. The bathrooms/showers were a little scruffy, but not horrible. The ponds that we visited and paddled were Fearing, Barrett, Charge, New Long Pond and East Head Reservoir. The first three are very symmetrical, so not terribly interesting for paddling, but would be great for a swim. New Long Pond seems much larger than it is due to the varied shoreline and we saw several species of birds there, but the real treat was East Head Reservoir. We saw two Northern Red-belly Cooters (an endangered turtle) and a Spotted Turtle (protected), Mute Swan, Yellow Warbler, Baltimore Oriel, Spotted Sandpiper and others as well as Pitcher plants and scads of highbush blueberries in full bloom (their foliage must be spectacular in autumn). For anglers, there were plenty of fish in the ponds. The Bad: Miles from anywhere, including the nearest bag of ice. There is no camp store, so be prepared to pack in everything you might need or plan on driving some distance to get what you need. For RVers, there is one dump station behind Headquarters, which they keep locked, so you will have to park and get someone to open the gate for you. There is no dumpster at the dump station, so it's best to use the dumpsters located near the restrooms in the camping loops. Signage around the park is lacking in places and the trail map they provide only shows trail names; it doesn't name the ponds or paved roads. Sadly, most of the staff seemed less than enthusiastic about their jobs and were only seen outside of the office at checkout time to patrol the loops. When asked about invasive aquatic species in the ponds, they were not knowledgeable at all, nor did they seem to care. Clean your gear thoroughly between ponds. Vehicle access to the ponds is closed before Memorial Day and after Labor Day, so if you are paddling, you will have to portage your boat, sometimes up and down fairly steep hills over slippery pine needles to access the ponds. I find it ironic they they tout their wonderful ponds as a main feature, but make them difficult to access. The Ugly: Trash. Everywhere. Tons of it (including two used baby diapers on the beach!). We could easily have filled at least one dumpster with the trash just from the office out to the Charge Pond loop and around each of the ponds we visited. Considering how much of it was beer cans, the park prohibition on alcohol is clearly ignored. There were no trash cans at the beaches (because it was the "off season" the week before Memorial day?). Another irony were the many signs admonishing visitors to "Keep Your Park Clean". This park has a lot ot offer if you like to walk/hike/bike/ride/paddle and could potentially take days to explore fully. Bring a trash bag and some gloves and the bug juice and have a blast!