Myles Standish State Forest

Myles Standish State Forest, spanning Plymouth and Carver, is the largest publicly owned recreation area in southeastern Massachusetts at over 12,400 acres, and one of the largest intact pitch pine-scrub oak forests remaining in the Northeast. There are 35 miles of hiking trails, 15 miles of paved bike paths, and dozens of kettle ponds scattered throughout, several with swimming beaches, plus camping, horseback riding, and hunting in season. The forest's pine barrens habitat supports a genuinely unusual mix of species for Massachusetts, including whip-poor-wills and the rare Plymouth red-bellied turtle. Given the sheer size of the property, a map is worth grabbing before you set out -- there is enough here to fill many separate visits without repeating a trail.