Willowdale Meadow

A trailhead leads to extensive trails that crisscross under a deep forest canopy, offering bikers, hikers and equestrians access to thousands of acres of protected land.

Located in the heart of Willowdale State Forest, the property offers forested upland, early successional meadow, freshwater wetlands, and a certified vernal pool. Teeming with wildlife, Willowdale Meadow sits within 100 yards of a paddle launch on the banks of the Ipswich River.

Willowdale State Forest was an Indigenous landscape where Algonquians who came here hunted white-tailed deer and gathered prized feathers of the red-tailed hawk. They also fished in the Ipswich River and its tributaries. They caught eels, trout, and bass in Teal Pond and in winters fished for Tomcod, or Frostfish, in Gravelly Brook.

A small open meadow greets visitors. The adventurous will find a wooded knoll and wetland deeper into the property, but most will gain access into the protected forests and wetlands of Willowdale State Forest.

Deer often greet dawn or dusk visitors, and red-tailed hawks are common soaring over the open meadow. Wetlands and vernal pools exist and offer important habitat for salamanders, frogs, toads and other wetland-dependent species.