Beaver Brook Loop

Dogs Leashed

Features Fall Colors

Beaver Brook offers a number of unmarked trails to explore for all different users. This loop hike starts out with a short and aerobic climb up and over Mackerel Hill, the only significant elevation at Beaver Brook, before looping parallel to the property boundary across town lines from Waltham to Belmont to Lexington and back to Waltham.

Trails at Beaver Brook can be traveled in either direction, so this recommended loop can be done in reverse or adapted to accommodate time constraints or groups of varying abilities.

Open dawn to dusk. Free parking available at North and South parking areas. Open to mountain bikes.

From the parking off Trapelo Road at Elsie Turner Field, head east up Mackerel Hill toward MetFern Cemetery. Continue onto the Bypass raised boardwalk heading north across the Western Greenway. The greenway is a great option to access this reservation by bike or on foot to avoid having to drive.

After passing the greenway, the Ridge Trail will bend to the left (west) and rejoin the Western Greenway. Head northwest on the greenway for half a mile before heading right (northeast) for a short unmarked loop. Return on the Western Greenway, heading south on another Secondary Trail, passing the Dog Ranch parking area. Continue south through a clearing before making the final switchback ascent to the water tower on Mackerel Hill before looping back down to the Elsie Turner trailhead.

Beware of poison ivy. A number of vernal ponds provide homes for wildlife and mosquitoes. Foxes, turkey, painted turtles, owls, jack-in-the-pulpit, pink lady slippers, and fiddleheads to forage.