Hopkinton State Park

July 13, 2019 Sunny

This is a large park with a reservoir, beaches, boat rental, and a trail system. We visited on a hot July day mainly to swim at the beach. But first we climbed a large dike to look over the reservoir. In the picture below you can see the beach that fronts a pond and the changing rooms.

On the other side of the high dike is the main reservoir for boat rentals and fishing. It also has a small beach (center of picture below, on the opposite shore).

But we returned to the Main Beach, which was fairly busy, even at 4 pm on a Saturday. It was family oriented, with plenty of children. Several lifeguards kept watch and there are buoys to mark the swimming area, which covers only a fraction of the pond.

The beach is sandy and clean, but the sand texture is fairly coarse. The water is warm enough to just wade in, and mainly shallow, which is great for kids to splash around. Near the edge of the swimming area, it’s maybe 6 or 7 feet, so not deep.

The kids really enjoyed splashing and swimming, and later playing on the shore. Since there are no waves or tides, it’s easy to build something elaborate and know that it will be there for a while.

An ice cream truck pulled up during our time there, offering a welcome treat, and I think the”Snowy Joey” truck is a regular. In fact, they came within minutes of an emergency medical situation that cleared the water for about 15 minutes. Maybe they knew it happened and what a great opportunity it was? In any case…it wasn’t related to swimming and we never did find out what happened.

Later in the day, around dinner time, we did a short drive over to the other “Upper Beach”, but were not impressed. The grilling is right next to the beach and the atmosphere is smoky (although in a good way). But there was also some trash on the beach, which was a bit muddier and not as sandy. I also noticed that it was shaded in the later afternoon hours, unlike the Main Beach that remained sunny the whole time.

But Ryan climbed up and enjoyed playing lifeguard.

The upper reservoir also has a nice-looking boat rental with paddleboards, canoes, kayaks, rowboats, paddleboats, and more. Although we didn’t take advantage of the boat rental, we definitely wanted to come back.

The reservoir is lovely in the afternoon and very clean. It’s quite large and more peaceful than I expected. There’s also no road noise within the park, which is great.

Overall, there’s plenty of variety here and the park is well kept. We were impressed with the Main Beach as an easy alternative to ocean beaches.

On our next visit, we’ll be sure to try the boat rental and report on it.

A clean, family-friendly beach with facilities and grills nearby. The water was warm and clear. Surprisingly fun for an inland location.
Nice big park with plenty of space for every activities. Swimming was fun for the little ones.
The water was warm but it was busy.
The water was nice and warm, and I like seeing Ryan on the life guard stand.