Visit these six Eastern Mass. parks and trails to view great foliage this fall

If you live in Eastern Massachusetts, you shouldn’t have to go far to take in what could be a “banner” year for fall foliage.

“It’s been a pretty steady year for (precipitation) overall, so I think we can expect a better season for colorful foliage,” Russell Holman, vice president of the Massachusetts Arborists Association, a trade group that promotes tree care education, told Wicked Local in late August. “Temperature and moisture are the biggest drivers of that.”

Holman said the combination of generally warm temperatures and “an even amount of moisture” position the state for a great leaf-peeping season.

“I wouldn’t be surprised if it was a banner year for foliage,” he said.

Consider these nearby parks and trails for promising leaf-peeping opportunities:

‘Very even’ moisture: Mass. arborist says this year’s steady rain will likely lead to banner foliage

125 Arborway, Boston

The oldest public arboretum in North America, the park was founded in 1872 with landscape designed by botanist Charles Sprague Sargent and legendary landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted, the man behind Central Park in New York City. 

This 281-acre preserve is world-renowned for its collections. It boasts “one of the world’s most comprehensive and best documented collections of temperate woody plants.” To learn more about the arboretum’s fall foliage, visit their website. 

This 8.2-mile path connects Dorchester, Hyde Park, Mattapan and Milton with a paved, multi-use path used for walking, jogging and biking. Connecting a series of public parks in each of the communities, the trail runs along the Neponset River.

Parks on the trail include the Neponset Reservation, the Dorchester Shores Reservation, Pope John Paul II Park, Neponset Park and Sen. Joseph Finnegan Park. 

93 Lake Ave., Woburn

A paved two-mile trail surrounds this 102-acre pond, with multiple wooded paths branching off the main trail to hike. Keep an eye out for beautiful rock formations and multiple species of birds as you go.

The pond itself provides a stunning addition to the natural vistas, particularly at sunset. 

Webster Avenue, Beverly

Beverly Commons Conservation Area’s 121 acres contain an extensive trail network through a forest of hemlocks; the tree’s tolerance of low light allows a dense canopy to form. Birds such as the winter wren, scarlet tanager and broad-winged hawk call this forest home, as does the semi-aquatic eastern ribbon snake.

This area served as an important route from Salem to Gloucester during the 17th and 18th centuries and was known as “Witches’ Woods” after families took shelter there during the mass hysteria of the Salem Witch Trials in the 1690s. 

580 Mount Auburn St., Cambridge

This 174-acre cemetery has been an area treasure for nearly 200 years and was designated a National Historic Landmark in 2003. In the 1840s, the cemetery was a popular tourist destination on the level of Niagara Falls and George Washington’s Mount Vernon.

It remains a popular spot to visit today, with 10 miles of roads and paths, various landscape styles, nearly 700 varieties of trees and thousands of shrubs and plants. Notable burials include Fannie Farmer, Isabella Stewart Gardner, Oliver Wendell Holmes, Winslow Homer and Henry Cabot Lodge. 

208 South Great Road (Route 117), Lincoln

This nearly-300-acre Mass Audubon property is replete with things to do, including four miles of hiking trails, native wildlife exhibits, animal barns, farm stand and seasonal programs.

In addition to barnyard animals including chickens, sheep, goats, pigs, cows and horses, keep an eye out for the native animal population, which includes owls, hawks and fox. 

Wicked Local multimedia journalist Seth Jacobson contributed to this report.