Distance: A little over two miles
Difficulty: Easy with a couple inclines.
No dogs allowed on the Ocean Lawn
Located in Manchester by the Sea, Massachusetts is Coolidge Reservation featuring hiking trails, forests, a pond and beautiful ocean views. There is a small parking lot off of Summer Street, we felt lucky to get a parking spot. There is a kiosk with a map of the trails.
We started off our hike by going up Bungalow Hill, which was off to the right from the trail head. This is a short incline hike up to a rock out cropping with views of the Atlantic Ocean.
There was supposedly a connector trail that went to the ocean lawn, but we could not find it so we went back the way we came and then followed the trail out to the ocean lawn from the trail head.
Even though the trail was not marked well, it was easy to follow down to the ocean lawn.
We passed a pretty little pond that had birds in it.
The trail came out to a beautiful lawn overlooking the ocean.
We could see the Boston skyline and overall gorgeous views of the ocean.
After walking around the ocean lawn and enjoying the views we walked back and near the pond took a side trail down to Magnolia Beach. This beach is not part of the reservation, but still worth the visit.
After walking the beach we heading back to the parking lot. Our total hike was a little over two miles. The trails were mostly flat except going up Bungalow Hill and near the ocean lawn was some incline. The ocean lawn did not allow dogs. I loved this hike, as you got a little bit of everything, a small incline hike with a view, beautiful scenery and a beach.
After our hike we drove into Gloucester and had lunch at Drift, which had great open air seating with ocean and downtown views and delicious food options.
If you are looking for something else to do in the area I highly recommend checking out Hammond Castle and Halibut Point State Park.
