Gloucester, Massachusetts

Total Acres: 29

Year Conserved: 1966

Property Description

Goose Cove Reservation was conserved by a group of 500 concerned Gloucester residents led by Dr. Frederic Breed who cherished the natural scenic beauty of this woodland as seen from Route 127.

Special Features:

The property features wooded upland, rocky shoreline, and tidal mudflats. Geologic features include Cape Ann granite, glacial erratics, glacial outwash, and moraine.

The scenery is some of the most beautiful and tranquil of all Greenbelt properties, and provides an opportunity to study varied plant and animal life. The shoreline along the cove offers a chance to find a variety of plant and animal life. Spartina grasses blanket the saltmarsh and the well adapted brown rockweed kelp is visible floating up and down with the tide. Watch for deer and fisher along upland trails and look for otter tracks on the mudflats or their slide marks on the snow and ice in winter. Shorebirds such as greater and lesser yellowlegs, least sandpipers as well as egrets and herons can be seen often at low tide on the mud flats. In winter at high tide, look for waterfowl like bufflehead and common golden-eye diving for food. 

Glacial erratics - A glacial erratic is a piece of rock that differs from the size and type of rock native to the area in which it rests. "Erratics" take their name from the Latin word errare, and are transported by glacial ice, often over hundreds of miles.

Glacial outwash - glacial outwash is the combination of sediments deposited by meltwater at the end of a glacier’s path.

Moraine - A moraine is any glacially formed accumulation of soil and rock

Parking

Parking is limited to 5 cars. Park in the gravel parking lot.

Directions

From 128, at Grant Circle in Gloucester: Drive north on Washington Street, Route 127, toward Lanesville for 1.9 miles. Landmarks you will pass are: the hospital on your left, the Ralph O’Malley

Middle School on your right. The Goose Cove parking area is a quarter mile past Willow Rest on the right. This is a blind right turn that could be easy to miss. If you pass a small brick municipal building on the right, you have gone too far. Park in the dirt lot. Parking is limited to 5 cars.