Upton State Forest — Attraction in Upton

I did the loop trail. It is nice, I think it's 3 miles long. Trails are very well marked. Only complaint was that there was a lot of dog poop on the trail. Disappointing as a dog owner walking my own dogs. I had to pick up a lot of extra poop. Not sure if the excess poop was because I went a week or so after a lot of the winter's snow had melted.. or if it's because there weren't trash barrels available when I looked. I don't expect barrels on the trails but in the parking lot would be nice, especially since there's public parks buildings there, so clearly someone works there regularly enough to empty a trash barrel. Also, I saw some people with tents set up to camp out. I'm sure they'd like to have trash barrels too. I don't think the people who enjoy these trails want to pollute their parks. This was only my first time here so I'll update when I check it out at other times...

This was my first visit to Upton State Forest. There were two parking areas. One was just outside what appeared to be the forest headquarters. There you will find one porta-potty. There's a walking path that leads to another parking lot. Both provide plenty of parking.

This State Forest has unpaved roads and trails. While you walk on the trails you may meet, hikers, bikers, joggers, and horseback riding as well as people walking their dogs. You may walk by a brook, river, and pond.

You may be able to pick up a map of the trails. One trail is designated with a 💗 which indicates that it is used for easy to moderate hiking.

✴️✴️ There are signs posted so people are aware that during hunting season people should wear blaze orange.

Overall a very nice place to hike. It wasn't heavily populated and everyone we meet...

Upton State Forest is an amazing place to hike, run, bike, walk your dog....feels like you are in the far northern woods in a quiet serine place. The park road/Loop road hike is a nice 5K loop. Clockwise you have "half mile hill" about 2M into the loop. Reverse puts the hill at the end of your first mile and a nice gradual climb for the last 1.5M. Go out and back to the end of park road added to the loop and you have a 5M route. Want to do single track trails? There is lots to explore. I did all of my Appalachian Trail training here as well as for my first 15M Trail race. Keep your eyes open for wildlife. There is a large rookery of Blue Heron's off of loop road and a number of old settlement ruins from the 1800s. Keep in mind you need to bring water and the 10 essentials for hiking. Cell...