Amesbury Town Forest with your dog: 5 miles to the Great Swamp

Ownership decides the rule. Greenbelt's property page says the City of Amesbury owns and manages the Town Forest, and it lists dog walking among the activities there, next to hiking, trail running, horseback riding and mountain biking. The city's animal control by-law, linked from its Animal Control page, says a dog away from its owner's premises must be restrained by a chain or leash no longer than six feet, unless it is on another person's land with that person's knowledge and permission. A public forest is neither, so the leash stays on.

Greenbelt's Trail Safety Guidelines cover how you walk. They ask dog walkers to leash dogs where required and follow posted guidelines, which may vary by property and season, to keep a dog from approaching wildlife, horses, other dogs or people uninvited, and to recall and restrain it when others approach. Waste goes in a bag and leaves with you; the guidelines say not to leave bags on or beside the trail. Bartlett Reservation, the Greenbelt parcel in the middle, keeps Greenbelt's hours: sunrise to sunset.

Greenbelt gives one parking instruction: park along Kimball Road opposite the Acadia Condos, with 60 Kimball Road as the address for a phone map. The property page lists no lot, no fee, no posted hours and no restrooms, so plan as you would for any roadside trailhead. Clip the leash on before the car door opens, because the car is beside a public road and the by-law's six-foot rule applies on the shoulder as much as on the trail.

Bring what the forest does not supply: water and a bowl, bags, and the map. Greenbelt posts its 2026 map as a PDF of about 3 MB on the property page; save it before you leave home, because a dead-end logging road is easier to spot on a map you can actually open. If the roadside spaces are taken, come back another time rather than squeezing in across a driveway.

Few dogs come out of the Great Swamp clean. If the walk ends with a coat full of mud and leaf litter, our bath and brush at 210 Eastern Ave is $55 for a dog up to 25 pounds, $65 up to 50, $75 up to 90, $85 above that and $95 for an extra-large long coat, and nail clipping adds $16. Grooming books online or in the Dogtown app without an evaluation, and a wet, parted coat on the table is a good moment to spot anything your trailside check missed.

Amesbury is a long drive from Eastern Ave and outside the Pup Van towns, so the bath makes most sense booked onto a day you are coming to Cape Ann anyway, or onto a daycare day for a dog that has done its free evaluation. Full-day daycare is $42 in a playgroup of 7 to 10 dogs matched by size and temperament. We do not take dogs to the Town Forest; the walk is yours, and the cleanup can be ours.