During our stay in Massachusetts, we stayed at a new (for us) campground, explored Boston, and visited some dog-friendly historical points of interest.
Massachusetts was just one stop on a much longer trip. Click the appropriate link to read posts about our previous stops in New York, Canada, Vermont, Maine, and New Hampshire.
Table of Contents
Where We Stayed
Spacious Skies–Minute Man
Spacious Skies Minute Man was another campground with tight, windy roads. We checked in on Friday. By Saturday evening, almost every campsite was taken! This appeared to be all short-term campers with few seasonals.
| Campground Name | Spacious Skies–Minute Man |
| Location | Littleton, MA |
| Dates | June 6-9, 2025 |
| Site Number | Site 81 |
| Hook-ups | Full hookups |
| Cost | $93.09 per night (including taxes and fees) |
| Water Pressure | 40 psi |
| Voltage | 115-125 V |
| Verizon Speed Test | 265 Mbps down; 51 Mbps up |
| T-Mobile Speed Test | 1100 Mbps down; 17 Mbps up |
Our campsite was nice. It was shady, but so were most of the sites from all the trees.
What We Did
Stone Zoo
The first thing we noticed was the covered parking with solar panels. This might be the first zoo we’ve seen that had this.
Some exhibits were pretty good; others were disappointing. There were a lot of chain-link fences (or welded wire, or whatever else looks like it), and the viewing windows desperately needed a good cleaning. There was a baby colobus monkey who was great to watch, but the chain-link made it impossible to get any good photos or videos.
The domestic yak was so much smaller than I expected!
I think the markhor had the best exhibit. It seemed larger than others, and the rocky terrain seemed perfect for them. Sadly, we didn’t see many of them.
I was surprised to see two snow leopards in the same enclosure. These were the most active snow leopards I think I’ve ever seen. I love watching their impossibly long tails as they move.
The glass viewing area for the white-cheeked gibbons desperately needed to be cleaned. It makes this video kind of difficult to see, but I thought it was a good example of the ease and speed with which they brachiate.
Otters are always fun to watch.
The black bear was right up at the fence. Again, more chain-link.
I saw these flowers/bushes in several states. We don’t have them in NC, and I have no idea what they’re called.
We ate lunch there on our way out. Turns out, we should have waited until we got to Boston. There were significantly better options close to our destination. (Be sure to read about the Faneuil Market later in the post.)
Boston
The beautiful architecture made driving through Boston much more fun than driving through many other cities.
New England Aquarium
The New England Aquarium is not inexpensive, but it was cool to see.
The penguins are right at the entrance, basically surrounding the spiral walkway around the large, central tank.
We arrived just in time to catch the 12:00 sea lion show. I always find it interesting to see the behaviors they teach.
I have been to many aquariums in my life. My experience has always been that if you can find the octopus, he/she will be in a crevice and you will get, at best, a look at a tentacle. So I was overjoyed to arrive at the octopus tank and discover this.
I have never gotten such a good look at an octopus or seen one so active.
We also saw the loggerhead sea turtle.
Such tiny seahorses!
Faneuil Hall Marketplace
After visiting the aquarium, we walked to Faneuil Market. It’s a wonderful place to explore. There’s dining, shopping, and more. Some of it’s outside, some of it is inside.
We absolutely should have eaten lunch here! The food looked a thousand times better, and there were so many choices! Options included pizza, fresh pasta, smoothies, sandwiches, baked goods, and more.
There were some name-brand stores like Loft and Build-A-Bear, but there were more local-looking stores (or at least names I’d never heard of). If you go, be sure to visit the Forever Leaf kiosk. I wish I’d thought to get a photo, but you can see photos on
so many food options (pizza, fresh pasta, smoothies, bakery with sandwiches, and more)
If you want a better idea about what’s there, visit the websites for Faneuil Hall Marketplace and Quincy Market.
Boston Carousel
Boston wins the award for best carousel! Sadly, it wasn’t open when we were there, but it was so good that I’m going to include photos anyway.
The Big Dig
Boston undertook one of the craziest construction projects when the powers that be decided to reroute an elevated highway (I-93) under the city. I don’t know much about it, but it was cool to be driving along and then disappear into a tunnel beneath Boston. I didn’t think about getting pictures in time to get good ones. Plus, it was raining. But maybe they’re better than nothing?
If you want to learn more about it, visit this page from mass.gov.
List for Next Time
There’s never enough time to see everything. Here’s our list of things we want to see/do the next time we’re in the Boston area.
- Museum of Ice Cream
- Museum of Illusions
- Boston carousel
- Franklin Park Zoo–Franklin Park Zoo is the sister institution to Stone Zoo. Both zoos are managed and operated by Zoo New England and accredited by the AZA. They are located about half an hour apart.
- Boxborough Station Wildlife Management Area–Whenever we took MA-2, we passed a swampy area with lots of trees. After passing it a few times, I finally noticed many of the trees had nests in them. After some research, I discovered it’s a heron rookery! If you’re interested in visiting, you can find directions on this page on Boxborough’s website. I only thought to get a photo the last time we passed it when we were on the opposite side of the highway, but if you look closely, you can see nests in several of the trees.
Wachusett Dam
Wachusett Dam is less than 30 minutes from the campground. Dogs are not allowed on the majority of the reservoir property, but if you plan to take a walk without a furry companion, this is a scenic place to go.
We followed Google Maps to 265-283 Boylston St, Clinton, MA 01510 and parked along the street on Boylston Street.
We didn’t find one long trail within the park. We made a loop by walking down the stairs, along River Street (part of the Wachusett Dam Hike), left on Chestnut Street, left on Nashua Street, and left onto Grove Street. At some point, Grove Street turns into River Street. It’s worth noting that there are a lot of stairs to get from the street parking to River Street.
There is an old train tunnel that’s cool to see. It’s about 0.25 miles down. (Just look for the landmark on Google Maps marked Train Tunnel.) Cross the street and climb up the path next to the big stone blocks.
Minute Man National Historical Park
North Bridge Visitor Center
North Bridge is the site of the beginning of the American Revolutionary War. Ever heard of the “shot heard round the world?” North Bridge is where it happened. The parking lot for the North Bridge Visitor Center is about 20 minutes from the campground. From the parking lot, it’s not even a half-mile walk to the bridge.
We found what I call a “good tree” at the North Bridge Visitor Center. Corona included for scale.
Minute Man Visitor Center
I saw several signs about various programs at the Minute Man Visitor Center. There’s a 25-minute “multimedia presentation” that runs every half-hour. There was a sandwich board outside the visitor center with information about several ranger talks held at a few different locations. If you do a little research ahead of time (or just stay flexible with your plans that day), you’d probably be able to enjoy some of these park offerings. Because we had the dogs with us, we didn’t try any, so I can’t say if they were interesting or would be interesting for kids.
After exploring the visitor center, we walked back to the parking lot and took the connector trail to the Battle Road Trail.
According to the National Park Service website, “The Battle Road Trail is a five-mile trail connecting historic sites from Meriam’s Corner in Concord to the eastern boundary of the park in Lexington. Much of the trail follows the original remnants of the Battle Road where thousands of Colonial Militia and British Regulars fought a bloody engagement on April 19, 1775. In some areas, the trail leaves the historic road to follow the route of the Minute Men traversing farming fields, wetlands, and forests.”
Where We Ate
Chip Shots Pub
Chip Shots Pub is walking distance from the campground. It’s probably about 0.3 miles from an actual campsite. It doesn’t look like much, but it was so close we wanted to give it a try.
We were there around 5:00 on a Sunday, and it was really quiet…just two men at the bar and us at a table. The men left not long after we arrived, so it was a little awkward. However, the food was delicious and very reasonably priced. A $14 burger includes cheese, bacon, and fries. We got two burgers, two sodas, and an appetizer of mozzarella sticks. Our total was $45.48 with tax but before tip.
Wildlife
So many chipmunks in the Northeast! This particular one was at the Stone Zoo, but we saw them basically everywhere we went.
Then we found these ducks at the North Bridge.
We saw a great blue heron at Wachusett Dam, but the photo wasn’t close enough to use. However, we were lucky enough to see an oriole that I did manage to get a photo of! Unfortunately, the background is a dumpster, but I’ll take what I can get.
While taking the short walk from the visitor center to North Bridge, we saw this cage on the ground. The attached sign reads: “What’s happening here? This fencing is protecting snapping turtle eggs; please do not disturb! We expect hatching to occur in late summer, at which point we’ll remove the caging.” It made me happy to see they went to such effort to protect the wildlife.
More Photos
Happy travels!
