Can you visit walden pond

He built his little one-room, foot by foot 3 x 4. He moved into his little house on July 4, , and made it is home until September 6, , except for a trip to Mount Katahdin in Maine, and one night in Concord Jail for refusing to pay the poll tax.

Thoreau wrote:. I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived.

The most popular path is the one that hugs the shore of the pond all the way around, but there are other trails in the forests surrounding the pond, and yet more trails on Pine Hill in the town of Lincoln, adjoining Concord to the southeast. Other paths lead around Walden Pond both along the shore and on the glacial esker ridges above. Thoreau wrote: I lived alone, in the woods, a mile from any neighbor….

My house was on the side of a hill, immediately on the edge of the larger woods, in the midst of a young forest of pitch pines and hickories, and a half dozen rods [ feet, 30 meters] from the pond, to which a narrow footpath led down the hill. This began the custom, and later visitors—ecological and literary pilgrims, really—also brought stones until the stones formed a substantial cairn.

Exactly a century after Thoreau built his little house and moved here, amateur archeologist Roland Wells Robbins spent three months digging the ground near the cairn until he discovered the footings for the chimney of the house. The small swimming beaches at Walden Pond are crowded i n summer with visitors from Concord, Boston and beyond coming to swim in its cool water and take the sun.

Lifeguards are on duty on summer days. There are no fees associated with accessing Walden Pond. A fee exists for parking in the Walden Pond State Reservation parking lot.

Thoreau Shop Subscribe Donate. Preservation Walden Pond State Reservation is owned and managed by the Massachusetts Department of Conservation and Recreation, and includes acres of protected open space. By Age. By Area. Things To Do. Family Fun. HOME - Boston. Activity Calendar. Sign up for our free newsletters. Restaurants Open on Thanksgiving in Boston. Day Trips and Weekend Getaways from Boston.

Guide to Boston Classes and Activities for Kids. Virtual and Online Guide for Family Fun. Walden Pond is a acre hectare state reservation offering hiking trails , swimming, fishing and historical sights map. The Visitor Center is a Net Zero , LEED-Certified ecological building with its own solar carport for electricity generation, electric vehicle charging stations, even solar-powered parking pass machines. The new, ecological Walden Pond Visitor Center. It's one of the most famous and popular state parks in Massachusetts.

At all times of year people come to follow the 1. The walk all the way around the pond takes about one hour at a comfortable pace, less if you walk briskly and don't linger at the site of Thoreau's house too long. In summer, visitors from Boston and beyond come to swim in its cool water and take the sun on its few narrow sand public beaches. There's a boat ramp for launching your boat, canoe or kayak. Internal combustion motors are not allowed, only quiet electric motors.

Fires, alcoholic beverages and dogs are prohibited in Walden Pond State Reservation at all times.