Willowdale State Forest

Managed by the Massachusetts Dept of Conservation & Recreation (DCR) is Willowdale State Forest located between Linebrook Road, Topsfield Road, and Old Right Road. This park is generally open from sunrise to sunset and offers an extensive amount of trails. These trails are popular for dog walking, hiking, jogging, walking, and mountain biking. The trails are not open to motorized vehicles.
There are two popular areas for parking. One parking area is near 260 Linebrook Road, across from the Marini Farm pond. The other is on Topsfield Road, about ½ mile west of Winthrop Street, just west of the Foot bridge that crosses the Ipswich River to the Bradley Palmer State Park. Paking space is also available at the foot bridge.
Come into the State Forest for a nice long walk or hike and you will soon feel like you are the only one there. The open space is quiet, calming, relaxing, and enjoyable to pass through.

Willowdale Is a great quiet park. I literally hiked for 3 hours and didn’t see anyone! I saw maybe 1 mountain biker, a group of three mtn bikers toward the very end of the hike, and one jogger. That was it! Bradley Palmer was a bit more busy but still fairly quiet and peaceful. I saw horses in Bradley palmer and more walkers. Willowdale appears to be quieter than Bradley Palmer just across the road. I started at the parking area off Asbury Rd. at Bradley Palmer, and hiked up to the bridge footbridge and then crossed the busy road. (Be careful here, there is no traffic signal which there should be.) traffic does not stop for crossing horses or anyone. They really need a horse RAMP and pedestrian ramp built here. Perhaps someone could donate one from a local business. or at at least a pedestrian light to force traffic to stop. The trails are marked by a number grid. Keep in mind the numbers are different than Bradley palmer’s numbers, so make sure to bring maps of Both if you are hiking both. Willowdale’s trails could be a bit better marked though, there are markers and landmarks at some of the key intersections, most are marked just by a post with numbers. I did notice some signs knocked over, vandalized, etc. Perhaps a boyscout troop could improve the trail system here with wooden directional signas and such and info kiosks, like you are here type maps? Good Eagle scout project perhaps? I would like to see some blazed trails through Bradley palmer and willowdale too creating some loop walks of various lengths. Overall though the landscape is beautiful, lots of variety, from swamps, marshes, woodlands, You reall feel like you are alone. If you are a woman I would highly recommend going with a group. You dont see anyone some days in Willowdale for a couple hours and feel like you are in the middle of nowhere. Overall it would be a great spot to combine Bradley Palmer and Willowdale for horseback riding, bike riding or cross country skiing, snowshoeing in winter, and of course hiking. If you do equestrian please follow the trails marked for equestrian. If you are a biker, please respect the off limit trails and follow the trails that are open to bikes. If you are a hiker please respect the other trail users, and pack in what you carry in. Perhaps even pick up trash along the route you see to help the park out. DCR Has limited funds and they keep cutting the budget. Overall this is a great hike and I highly recommend it. Side Note: The Discover hamilton trail is a marked loop in Bradley palmer state park that goes for 8 miles through Hamilton and part of Ipswich, wenham, topsfield. You can connect from Willowdale to this trail. Also the BAY CIRCUIT LOOP Around Metro Boston 128 corridor parkland cuts through Willowdale so you can hike to other parks following the white blazes. You can use the Discover hamilton trail in Bradley Palmer to get to Appleton Farm Grasdrides as well. Enjoy Willowdale. Don’t forget to look for the fairy people under the ferns!:-)

Really, really fun spot for mountain biking.
Keep your eyes open for the single track. It darts in and out of the fire roads. Some are marked with little pink/​orange ribbons. You can develop a 10+ mile loop of almost all single-​track, with varying terrain. Mostly pretty smooth track, but the Southwest corner, east of route 1, has some good short climbs, rock gardens, and challenging tree roots.
Beware of hunters west of route 1.
Park on Linebrook Road, across from Marini Farm, or on Topsfield Road, right near the foot bridge over the Ipswich river into Bradley Palmer State Park.

Went here after looking online for a place not too far away to go snowshoeing. The trails here are well maintained. That combined with the many cross country skiers that had obviously been there before us made for well-​packed trails. We opted to go without the snowshoes and it worked out well.
The forest is bisected by Route One. We went to the pine swamp side of the forest and did the circuit trail. (The second half of which was the Bay Circuit Trail.) The website says to allow 2.5 hours for this hike, but it took us about 2 hours and that included a quick snack break.
This was a nice stroll through the woods. There are a variety of trails, from fire roads to small trails. There were only a couple of small hills, so this location would be great for a variety of people and obviously is quite popular with cross country skiers.
To get here, take Route One north then take a right onto Linebrook Road. There is a small parking area (not marked) on the right side of the road, right before Marini’s Farm Stand.