Dodge Reservation in Rowley with your dog: which lot to use

The Town of Rowley owns Dodge Reservation, and Greenbelt's 2025 map shows it as conserved by Greenbelt. Rowley's Open Space Committee lists the reservation among the town's nature trails with a one-line request: please keep dogs on a leash. Greenbelt's page lists dog walking as one of four activities here, with hiking, trail running and winter recreation, and its policies ask owners to carry a leash, leash aggressive dogs, keep noise down, never leave a dog unattended, and pick up and carry out the waste.

Greenbelt's Trail Safety Guidelines spell out the manners. Leash where required, keep your dog from approaching wildlife, horses, other dogs or people uninvited, and when others come along the trail, recall your dog, step aside and hold it until they pass. Greenbelt properties are open from sunrise to sunset only. The committee's request is the rule written for this particular land, so treat the leash as the standard on every trail here, from the first junction to the last.

Greenbelt lists 2.8 miles of trails on moderate terrain and calls them well marked, running through fields with wetland and upland wooded views; the town's listing says more than 2 miles. The acreage depends on which page you read: Greenbelt's highlights and map say 193 acres, its summary says 207, and the town says more than 200. The 2025 map numbers the junctions from 1 to 12 between the two lots, which makes it easy to plan a loop and to tell someone at home which way you went.

The history is still on the ground. Greenbelt says the Dodge family farmed here and kept an orchard in the 1800s, the Girl Scouts later ran a camp, the town bought the land from them in 2014, and Greenbelt took a conservation restriction in 2019. Batchelder Brook runs through the property and is stocked with trout by MassWildlife, so expect anglers along its banks after a stocking and keep the leash short where they stand.

Fields, brook banks and damp woods leave mud on the legs and burrs in the coat. A bath and brush at Dogtown, 210 Eastern Ave in Gloucester, is a warm wash, a full blow-dry and a brush-out, priced by size: $55 up to 25 pounds, $65 to 50, $75 to 90, $85 over 90 and $95 for an extra-large long-haired dog. Nail clipping adds $16, and dematting is $15 per 20 minutes for a coat the brambles have knotted.

No evaluation is needed for grooming, so a bath can be booked online or in the Dogtown app for whichever drop-off window suits the drive. From Rowley the route runs south on Route 1A into Ipswich, then east on Route 133 through Essex to Route 128 and Eastern Avenue, about 35 minutes outside rush hour by our estimate. Rowley is outside the Pup Van towns of Rockport, Gloucester, Essex and Manchester-by-the-Sea, so ask us about pick-up. Daycare and overnight stays begin with a free weekday evaluation between 6:30 and 9:30 AM.