Walden Pond Trip Review

Name: Walden Pond
Location: Concord, Massachusetts
Website: http://www.mass.gov/dcr/parks/walden/
Length of stay: 90 minutes

Walden Pond is a part of the Massachusetts Forest and Parks system. There is a replica of Thoreau’s house that you can wander into. There are trails around the pond and small beaches that you can swim at during the summer.

Before taking this trip we read the book The Trouble with Henry: A Tale of Walden Pond by Deborah O’Neal, Angela Westengard and S.D. Schindler. It gave the girls a good idea of what Walden Pond was about. It also gave them an idea of what size of house he lived in.

In the house they loved that they could find all the items talked about in the book. His two chairs, bed, desk, and stove. Rose was proud that she knew the two chairs were in case he had a guest. We signed the guest book here and looked at where some of the other people were coming from. Outside we looked at the statue of Henry.

We walked down to the pond. Rose and Amelia found frogs and fish right away. They also pointed out the many different people swimming. We walked around until we were on a beach and could look out.

We took the 1/2 mile one way hike to see the site of where his house was. The girls enjoyed the hike. We saw chipmunks, squirrels, spider webs, blue jays and heard lots of different animal sounds. The girls did great on the hike. They held hands and everyone followed the rules of hiking that were given to them: No running, we stay together as a group, and we take turns leading.

At the site of the house we looked at the markers and compared it to what we saw of the replica.

We looked at the place where the chimney was.

We read the quote that was there and talked about whether we always need lots of stuff to have fun. The girls also got to ask a guide questions about the house and he told them some information as well.

On the return hike we stopped to look at where part of the pond was cut off from the main part because of water level. The girls enjoy looked at the lily pads and insects that were flying around.

Over all it was a great trip and the girls had tons of fun! They asked to go back and hike all the way around the pond!

Cassie – 3Dinosaurs.com