On a soft April morning, with the last crisp chills of winter still clinging to the morning air, Wompatuck State Park hums with a quiet kind of energy. The clatter of tires over roots and gravel breaks the silence, but only briefly. Just 30 minutes south of Boston, this 3,500-acre woodland in Hingham is well-known among mountain bikers across the South Shore and beyond. But despite its reputation - and the steady growth in popularity - Wompatuck has managed to hold onto something rare: space.
Here, you can still find solitude. You can still lose the day, and yourself, in the trees. And whether you're grinding up a climb on Prospect Hill or weaving through tight singletrack deeper in the woods, it rarely feels crowded or commercial. Wompatuck is known, yes. But it hasn’t been overrun.
There's a great spirit here.
Vicki Schow, President of the Friends of Wompatuck
A Labyrinth of Trails
Wompatuck doesn’t announce itself the way better-known biking meccas do. There’s no grand welcome center, no lift-served lines, no banners touting vert and velocity. Instead, there’s a nondescript paved road leading into the woods, and then, tucked just out of sight, some of the best mountain biking terrain in Massachusetts.
“Wompy,” as the locals call it, offers more singletrack than anywhere else in the close-to-Boston area. Some trails are fast and swoopy, inviting a playful rhythm through the forest. Others are much busier - classic New England tech - where you rarely ride in a straight line for more than fifty feet without hopping logs, threading between trees, and clattering over endless webs of roots and rocks.
Prospect Hill, the park’s largest climb, anchors the landscape. It boasts five routes to the summit, four of them winding singletracks, including what many riders say is the longest continuous switchback climb in Massachusetts. The park’s alpha-numeric trail markings hint at order but barely contain the complexity of the journeys each trail weaves, with challenging root gardens, tricky rock features, and meandering paved connectors blending into a landscape that always rewards exploration.
Wompatuck doesn’t try to be everything. It just happens to be a little bit of everything, and it invites riders to choose their own adventure, whether that’s hammering a technical line or letting the bike flow through easier sections.
It’s not just mountain bikers who find a home here either. Trail runners, dog walkers, and families hiking with kids all share the space, each finding their own pocket of quiet. As Vicki Schow, President of the Friends of Wompatuck, put it: “You can ride without seeing a lot of people. You can pick a starting point that fits your day.”
Spring in the Woods
The best time to ride Wompatuck might just be spring, especially this year. Thanks to unusually dry conditions, the trails are running fast and firm, with none of the deep mud pits or washouts that can sometimes mark early-season rides. "Wompy," as locals affectionately call it, is often jokingly referred to as "Swampatuck" in wetter years. But this spring, the trails are remarkably dry and beginner-friendly, perfect for riders looking to shake off the winter rust.
“Spring’s always a great time to start pedaling,” Schow said. “But right now, it’s even better. It’s surprisingly dry, even compared to last year.”
The leafless canopy means clearer sightlines through the woods, and the low angle of the sun makes even the gnarliest climbs feel poetic. Wildflowers begin to press up through the pine needles. Birds return. The forest exhales.
Out of the City, Into the Trees
In the welcome center parking lot on a recent Sunday, a man wrestling a bike out of the back of his Genesis caught our eye. After initially refusing help, Dan Barrett relented. And we struck up a conversation as he tightened his helmet strap.
Dan, now in his early thirties, spent most of his twenties living in Washington, D.C., working long hours for one of the Big Four accounting firms. It was there, among coworkers looking for an escape from the corporate grind, that he first caught the mountain biking bug. They’d load up their cars and head to places like Fountainhead Regional Park in Northern Virginia, chasing adrenaline across technical trails before Monday morning deadlines dragged them back.
When Dan returned to Boston a few years ago to work at a startup, he worried he might lose touch with that rhythm. “At first, I thought I’d have to drive way up into New Hampshire or Vermont to find good trails,” he said. “Then someone mentioned Wompatuck.”
What he found surprised him. Just a short drive from his condo in South Boston, Wompatuck offered everything he needed: tight singletrack, tough climbs, and enough space to feel lost: in the best way.
“Some days,” Dan said, “I come out here and just absolutely hammer it: find the gnarliest stuff, really push myself. Other days, I’m not in that headspace. I just want to cruise, explore the old roads and bunkers, take it easy.”
For Dan, Wompatuck is both a proving ground and a sanctuary. The choice is always his, full-throttle challenge or meditative wander, and he rarely rides the same route twice.
“You can really tune your ride to your mood,” he said, adjusting his gloves and clicking into his pedals. “That’s what makes this place different.”
With a wave, he rolled off into the woods, the steady cadence of his ride quickly swallowed by the trees.
The Bunkers Beneath the Trails
Long before mountain bikers carved singletrack through these woods, Wompatuck was a very different kind of facility, one shrouded in secrecy and lined with live ordnance.
In 1941, as the United States prepared for the growing threat of global war, the Navy purchased hundreds of acres from local landowners to expand its nearby Hingham Naval Ammunition Depot, which would become the primary ammunition supplier for the Atlantic Fleet during World War II. The annexed land, now the southern and eastern stretch of Wompatuck, was laced with a network of cement bunkers and storage roads, all feeding into a private spur of the Old Colony Greenbush rail line. At its peak in June 1945, the Depot and Annex together employed more than 2,000 civilians, 721 naval personnel, and 375 Marine guards.
After the war, the facility fell into a quieter maintenance phase. But it roared back to life during the Korean War, when the Navy reactivated the site, this time storing a new kind of weapon. Bunker N9, deep within the forest, housed some of the Navy’s earliest experimental nuclear depth charges.
By 1962, the Annex was officially declared surplus, and the bunkers were left to the elements. Over the decades, nature steadily reclaimed the land. Trees now arch over cracked concrete roads. Vines scale reinforced steel doors. And yet some of those bunkers still stand, including N9, moss-covered and half-swallowed by forest. You’ll round a corner at speed and suddenly see one looming: a thick, silent dome with rusted hinges and ghosted warning stencils. They’re part relic, part trail marker, and entirely unforgettable.
Known But Never Crowded
Wompatuck isn’t a secret, not really. Locals know it well. So do riders from the New England Mountain Bike Association (NEMBA), families, and endurance racers. But in an era when mountain biking destinations are being branded, monetized, and often overwhelmed, Wompatuck remains refreshingly unpolished. It doesn’t feel curated for social media or optimized for first-timers. It feels real.
The size of the park, and the number of different starting points, helps too. Riders can drop in from the welcome center, the campground, the transfer station, or even adjoining parks like Whitney Thayer Woods. And now, thanks to Friends of Wompatuck’s new Wompy Trail Map, riders can filter trails by difficulty and style, making the park more accessible than ever.
Even during large events, like the annual Landmine Classic, one of the biggest mountain bike races in New England, the park rarely feels claustrophobic. When the race tape comes down, the quiet returns.
And for those just starting out, there are even Saturday beginner rides organized through NEMBA where new riders are guided gently onto trails that match their skills. “It's a special community,” Schow said. “People really want you to have a great day out there.”
The Ride You Want
What makes Wompatuck special isn’t just the number of trails or the mix of terrain. It’s the flexibility. It’s the way it invites you to make your own ride.
If you're looking to test your fitness, there are long steady climbs and rugged stretches of technical singletrack where roots and rocks force you to stay sharp. If you want a more playful ride, you can find fast, swooping sections that roll through open woods and natural corridors. And if you’re after a relaxed spin, the park's old depot roads and paved connectors offer wide, gentle paths perfect for easy cruising.
Schow emphasized that the variety isn't just about trail types: it's about feeling welcome, no matter your skill level or riding style. “There’s this great spirit here," she said. "It’s not a place where you feel judged if you’re a beginner. People are genuinely excited to see new riders discover what Wompatuck has to offer.”
That openness — combined with the park’s size and complexity — is part of why so many riders keep coming back. Every ride feels a little different. Every route has a chance to surprise you.
Wompatuck doesn’t tell you what kind of rider to be. It simply hands you the keys to a giant, ever-changing playground and lets you decide what kind of adventure you’re looking for.
If You Go:
Location: 204 Union St, Hingham, MA 02043
Trail Info & Conditions: Trailforks – Wompatuck State Park
Interactive Park Map: Wompy Trail Map
Community Events & Trail Work Days: Friends of Wompatuck