Fresh Pond Reservoir and Park

A convenient park for doing cardio walking around a large pond. Many places to get on and off the trail in Belmont, Cambridge or Arlington. Paved and accessible.

It’s clean, well-​kept and my dog loves it! Nice to find a natural place with paved roads where he can go off-​leash. Guess we will be going back again very soon.

This place is great to bring your dog if you want to go for a run or walk and not have to deal with them pulling the leash the whole time. My dog runs around in the bushes like a crazy pup and everyone is ok with it, best!
Kinda cool thing is that you can only park there if you have a Cambridge resident permit which keeps it low key and never crowded.

I had a nice walk here today. The loop is 2.25 or 2.5 miles around, depending on one optional stretch, but there are a few little extra trails splitting off to go closer or farther from the water. It takes about 45 minutes to walk around. There’s parking for Cambridge residents. The signs say that you must have a resident permit on your car to park if you park in the lot off of Fresh Pond Parkway (it’s right across the street from the Honda dealership). I think across the pond there are other parking lots, too. The path is well cared for, and has both paved and dirt ares to give runners an option on most parts. It’s smooth enough for a kid to bike or to push a stroller without trouble.
I like that there are areas where you almost feel like you’re not in the busy city. But the truth is, there’s no way it’s out of the city because NO ONE makes eye contact with you out on the path. It’s just a sad reminder that it’s actually an urban location. But it’s a refreshing place to walk without having to drive far away, so it’s still worth it.

Great place to take a walk in west Cambridge!
I will refer to it as a dog park, because I bring my dog here… it’s great that dogs are allowed off leash here, although I don’t trust my golden puppy off leash at all. We still had fun walking the loop.
And the best part is…
LITTLE FRESH POND! Yep, the little doggie beach area for swimming. I only wish this was fully fenced in with gates so that the dogs can’t run out onto the path – I keep Zoe on a 50 foot leash so I can stop her from running out wet and hyper and jumping on dry and unsuspecting joggers. But as a golden, she lives to swim, and we walk here pretty much every day so she can swim and retrieve sticks in the pond. I am so glad that they allow dogs to swim here and it is just wonderful exercise for my water-​loving dog!