Cutler Park

Absolutely beautiful! Great trail to walk around and beautiful. Really enjoyed the different terrain and how it feels so far away but is right in between the highway and main roads…
Loved watching and enjoying this place.

We went here on a whim. I didn’t even consult Unilocal.We didn’t go to the lake park– definitely next time we will! It was really cool. Felt very isolated even though it’s close to the highway. We took our dog off leash (which is against the rules ;), but our pup is trained so we didn’t have a problem — can’t say the same for other dogs though.
Also, I picked up after my dog, but a ton of people don’t. There aren’t trashcans along the non-​lake trails so watch ur step!

It would have been a relaxing visit except for the hundreds of piles of dog feces along the path, and the bags of dog feces people have simply collected and left on the ground. A relaxing visit was cut way short by the utter disgust caused by dog owners. Come on, people. Clean up after your pet!

There is a dotted trail on the map that takes you around Millennium park. You are on your own there, it takes you off the trail, down the VFW Parkway, must walk to the park, cross the park, find another paved path back into the woods, into a residential area, and the trail picks up behind a school, which is not easy to find unless you know in advance.
It was getting late, we were lucky enough to find some hikers who knew the entrance behind the school.
In summary, if you go to the tunnel near the train tracks, and want to continue a loop without going back, you will likely be pondering your trail map on a town sidewalk.

A little hidden gem. Nice paths, pretty lake. A lot of noise from 95, which runs right next to it, though. Still, if it’s close, a nice place for a quick escape into nature.

I definitely feel lucky to have my job overlook this fine park. I’ve only gotten the chance to visit it a handful of times, but it’s very well kept park, with beautiful views of the pond and access to the Charles. I love coming here for a quick run or hike. While the main loop (around the pond) is a great trail for a bike ride or run, I actually love the smaller trails off the main one that go off into the ‘woodlands’. While a previous reviewer is correct in the fact that there are a number of off leash dogs here at any given time, the ones I have come across are really friendly and are with very responsible owners. Definitely check this park out if you’re in the area and need your daily dose of nature!

Very nice park, with miles of varied trails. Be awesome starter place if you were looking to off road bike as there were both advanced «cliffy» areas as well as flatter areas. The trails are winding and offer varied vistas of the marshland and other waterways around, as well as simple «through woodlands» trails.
My one caveat for anyone attending (especially with small children) is to be wary of the leash-​less dogs that are EVERYWHERE. People seem to not mind the leash law at all here (and in most parks actually), and it’s not uncommon to round a corner in the woods to find a strange dog bearing down on you (with unknown intentions). We even saw a dog walking service truck parked in the parking lot, so know ahead of time what you might see.
Depite that, I still highly recommend the place, (and the Kayak/​Canoe rental place literally down the road isn’t bad either).

Great place to walk you’re dog on leash, perfect size. The park I mean, I wasn’t suggesting anything, watchyourself.

Great place to walk, run, or cycle. For more information, including a detailed trail map, visit

Awesome fall cyclocross training ground, also really good for cross-​country/​beginner mountain biking.
Carriage roads, bog bridges, muddy spots, single track, curvy sections … most of it can be ridden at a pretty brisk pace. I think it’s most fun on a sunny day after a day of rain, when there are some mud puddles and riding is a bit more slick and technical.
I would highly recommend the 10+ mile Blue Heron Trail, especially to any cyclocross rider looking for a really fun ride. Between trail markers 20 and 28, I prefer to ride up the hiking trail which is some really fun single track that rides along a ridge, above the flat and easy carriage path below. Also, I like to throw in a few laps around the Powells Island loop, some of the most fun riding on the trail with lots of curves.
See y’all on the trails …

I just stopped by the park today and took a bike ride. It was a beautiful place. Looked exactly like the pictures from the website.
It only took me about 10 minutes to go around the lake, so I went around twice. The trail seems to get pretty muddy after rain, but I was able to skirt the muddy patches.
There is a wonderful point on the opposite side of the lake from the Kendrick Road entrance, when you get over there you get a view of the lake and the marshes, and all you see is trees and marsh and lake all around. What a beautiful thing only a few minutes away from bustling Newton and Needham.

Cutler Park is known as an easy place to learn how to mountain bike, with 18 miles (I think) of trails, and it’s part of the 10-​mile DCR (Dept of Conservation & Recreation) Blue Heron Trail that goes through West Roxbury, Dedham, Newton & Needham.
The trail has a bunch of different terrains, everything from city park, to marshland, to boardwalk, to industrial park road, to dirt path, to wetland, to sand pit, to main road with whizzy cars (in some places Rt 128 is 20 feet away from you). I didn’t bring bug spray, but the flying crawly bitey things didn’t, erm, bug me.
I have a decidedly less-​than-​hardcore hybrid bike, and there were only a few places off road where I felt out of my league, walked the bike, or, at one boardwalk bridge, fell off of it.
But the terrain changes weren’t so much an issue as the lack of clear trail markings. This is a state park. It’s not a funding priority. You are basically at the mercy of small blue triangles with herons on them tacked to trees to tell you where you are. Whether it’s ranger oversight, or punk kids ripping them off trees, you aren’t always sure of where you’re going. And I can be directionally dysfuctional, so it doesn’t take much for me to get lost.
Another thing is that grass and vegetation can grow quickly, so some places on the trail that haven’t seen a weedwacker lately are impossible to get through.
At one point, I found myself dumped out on a main road with a parking lot, but had no idea where I was (yes, I went in the woods by myself with a dying cellphone. Bad, bad, bad girl!!). So even park signage is lacking. Fortunately, there was a DCR rules & regs board and a 24-​hour ranger hotline. The park dispatcher got a ranger to call me back in under 10 minutes, and she told me where I was and helped me find an alternative route, given that the trail where I was needed more than a weedwacker – it needed a Brazillian wax.
There is a map online you can download, but the one the DCR ranger mailed to me afterward seemed so much clearer. Landmarks on the map are clearly marked, but they are not thusly marked in real life, which is totally asshat of the state to do.
Nonetheless, given my directional deficiencies, I was able to get around, out, and back to my car with very minimal hassles, and I will admit a certain level of pride to conquering the park.
Most people tend to walk, jog or bike around Kendrick Pond. I encountered very few people deeper in the woods. At one point, in the depth of the marshlands, I crossed paths with a young woman walking the other way. «Isn’t this dreamy?» she said. I totally agreed.