The Warner Trail is a

New England New England is a region comprising six states in the Northeastern United States: Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont. It is bordered by the state of New York (state), New York to the west and by the Can ...

hiking Hiking is a long, vigorous walk, usually on trails or footpaths in the countryside. Walking for pleasure developed in Europe during the eighteenth century.AMATO, JOSEPH A. "Mind over Foot: Romantic Walking and Rambling." In ''On Foot: A Histor ...

trail which extends from

Diamond Hill Diamond Hill is a hill in the east of Kowloon, Hong Kong. The name also refers to the area on or adjacent to the hill. It is surrounded by Ngau Chi Wan, San Po Kong, Wong Tai Sin and Tsz Wan Shan. Its northeast is limited by the ridge. It is p ...

in the northeast corner of

Rhode Island Rhode Island (, like ''road'') is a state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It is the smallest U.S. state by area and the seventh-least populous, with slightly fewer than 1.1 million residents as of 2020, but it ...

northeast through

Norfolk County, Massachusetts Norfolk County is located in the U.S. state of Massachusetts. At the 2020 census, the population was 725,981. Its county seat is Dedham. It is the fourth most populous county in the United States whose county seat is neither a city nor a bor ...

to Canton, south of

Boston Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...

Description

Its route winds through what has become a primarily suburban landscape punctuated by significant pockets of

rural In general, a rural area or a countryside is a geographic area that is located outside towns and cities. Typical rural areas have a low population density and small settlements. Agricultural areas and areas with forestry typically are descri ...

conservation land and state forest. The terrain is hilly and occasionally rugged with ledges of

metamorphic rock Metamorphic rocks arise from the transformation of existing rock to new types of rock in a process called metamorphism. The original rock ( protolith) is subjected to temperatures greater than and, often, elevated pressure of or more, caus ...

and

granite Granite () is a coarse-grained ( phaneritic) intrusive igneous rock composed mostly of quartz, alkali feldspar, and plagioclase. It forms from magma with a high content of silica and alkali metal oxides that slowly cools and solidifies under ...

; forest cover is of the oak-hickory type. Completed in 1947, the trail originally stretched from Diamond Hill to the

Blue Hills Reservation Blue Hills Reservation is a state park in Norfolk County, Massachusetts in the United States. Managed by the Massachusetts Department of Conservation and Recreation, it covers parts of Milton, Quincy, Braintree, Canton, Randolph, and Dedh ...

Randolph, Massachusetts "To Say What One Feels" , pushpin_map = , pushpin_label_position = right , pushpin_label = , pushpin_map_caption = Location in Massachusetts , coordinates = , s ...

, but encroaching development had truncated the route by the 1970s. Plans to rebuild that lost connection were put forward in 2003 as part of Massachusetts'

Commonwealth Connections Commonwealth Connections is a greenway and conservation initiative co-developed by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts Department of Conservation and Recreation (DCR), the National Park Service, and over fifty trail and land conservation agencies ...

statewide greenway initiative. The

Appalachian Mountain Club Appalachian Mountain Club (AMC) is the oldest outdoor group in the United States. Created in 1876 to explore and preserve the White Mountains in New Hampshire, it has expanded throughout the northeastern U.S., with 12 chapters stretching from Ma ...

and the Friends of the Warner Trail maintain the Warner Trail. The trail passes through Cumberland, Rhode Island and the Massachusetts towns of Canton, Sharon, Foxboro, Wrentham, and Plainville. There are no overnight facilities on the Warner Trail. The Warner Trail connects to the

Bay Circuit Trail The Bay Circuit Trail and Greenway or Bay Circuit is a Massachusetts rail trail and greenway connecting the outlying suburbs of Boston from Plum Island in Newburyport to Kingston Bay in Duxbury, a distance of . Landmarks include Henry David ...

Route features

White rectangles and metal disks mark the trail. From south to north, the trail visits a number of high points with ledge-top views including Diamond Hill , also known for its defunct ski area; Sunset Rock, Wampum Rock, Knuckup Hill, Outlook Rock, Pinnacle Hill, Goat Rock, High Rock, Pierce Hill, Allen Ledge, Bluff Head, and Moose Hill, the trail's high point. The Warner Trail also visits a number of bodies of water and passes through three state forests (Wrentham State Forest, F. Gilbert Hills State Forest, and Foxboro State Forest), the new Diamond Hill State Park in Rhode Island, and the

Massachusetts Audubon Society The Massachusetts Audubon Society, commonly known as Mass Audubon, founded in 1896 by Harriet Hemenway and Minna B. Hall and headquartered in Lincoln, Massachusetts, is a nonprofit organization dedicated to "protecting the nature of Massachusett ...

's Moose Hill Sanctuary.

References

* ''Massachusetts Trail Guide'' (2004). Boston:

.
Commonwealth Connections proposal PDF download
Retrieved April 27, 2015.

External links

Sharon Friends of Conservation. Retrieved March 1, 2008.
Moose Hill Audubon Sanctuary
Retrieved March 1, 2008.
Moose Hill maps
. Retrieved March 1, 2008.
F. Gilbert Hills map
. Retrieved March 1, 2008.
Wrenthan State Forest map
. Retrieved March 1, 2008. {{Rhode Island hiking trails Hiking trails in Massachusetts Hiking trails in Rhode Island Cumberland, Rhode Island Protected areas of Providence County, Rhode Island Protected areas of Norfolk County, Massachusetts