A kettle pond in the forest so beautiful, it inspired Henry David Thoreau to build a cabin. It’s a popular spot for bird watching, fishing, and picnics, there is also a small beach for swimming and a boat ramp. Following an extremely easy 2-mile loop trail will take you around the pond and there is a very short spur to the location of Thoreau’s cabin.
Located along Route 2 in Concord and Lincoln, Massachusetts, The Walden Pond Reservation includes 335 acres of woodland, meadows, and a 64.5-acre body of water known as Walden Pond. The kettle pond, a hole in an outwash plain formed by retreating glaciers, was formed 10,000–12,000 years ago. At it’s deepest, Walden Pond reaches about 100 feet with an average depth of approximately 39 feet.
The reservation was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1962 mostly for its association with the writer, transcendentalist, and philosopher Henry David Thoreau – who was born in Concord on July 12, 1817. Starting in the summer of 1845, he spent two years living in a single room cabin right above the pond which provided the foundation to his famous 1854 work, Walden; or, Life in the Woods. The Concord Museum contains the desk, chair, and bed from Thoreau’s cabin.
The land at that end of the reservation was owned by Thoreau’s friend and mentor, Ralph Waldo Emerson. Descendants of Emerson and other families deeded the land around the pond to the Commonwealth of Massachusetts in 1922.
The land here is cherished so much that even Don Henley, the drummer/vocalist for the Eagles, initiated The Walden Woods Project in 1990 to prevent the area around Walden Pond from being developed. Since then more than 85 acres of land are now permanently protected, including where Thoreau took moonlit walks, Bear Garden Hill.
