Distance: 2 miles, but more or less options
Difficulty: Easy
Located in Townsend, Massachusetts is Howard Park, which has fairly flat walking trails throughout the woods and along with Squannacook River.
There are two options to access the trails. You can park at Hawthorne Middle School off of Brookline Road or at the end of Howard Street. We parked in the small parking lot at the end of Howard Street. When driving down Howard Street it looks like you are driving down someone’s driveway. If I were to visit these trails again I would park at the Middle School.
At the Howard Street trail head there is a kiosk with a trail map.
The trail starts out with a short walk before crossing a bridge.
After the bridge we took a left and walked along the river. We saw over 20 Mallards on one section of the river. I really enjoyed walking the path along the Squannacook River
A little further up the river there was a little ledge outcropping that was kind of fun to stand on.
We continued on into the woods before looping back to the Howard Road Trailhead. We hiked about 2.25 miles. There were a few intersections of trails that were not always well marked and I had to pull up All Trails for their map. Overall, my husband and I enjoyed our walk through these fairly flat trails and would absolutely return for a hike or trail run.
