Pedestrian and Bicycle Entrances

The park is a wonderful place to walk and ride bicycles. Here are some suggested ways to enter the park and good walking and bike paths. There are lots of options - look at the park map to see which entrances are closest to you. Entrances are named for the streets they border.

Glen Road Entrance: an unmarked entrance from the Jamaica Plain side of the park that is up a fairly steep hill (you might have to walk your bike up) from Washington Street. Glen Road is the continuation of Green Street (where the Orange Line T stop is located). From the T stop, walk right, cross Amory Street, Washington Street, and Forest Hills Street - stay straight and you'll dead end in the park at the entrance. Green Street becomes Glen Road after you cross Washington. Stop at Canto 6 on the corner of Washington Street for wonderful coffee and baked goods.

If you walk straight into the park, you'll see soaring rock cliffs on your right and paths leading into The Wilderness, a beautiful 65-acre forest, where you can forget you are in the city! If you stay straight on the paved path you'll meet a perpendicular path that is a one-mile loop around the Playstead ballfields, Overlook Shelter ruins, and White Stadium. From this paved route that makes a great bicycle ride, there are paths leading to the old Bear Dens.

Humboldt Avenue Entrance: marked with a Franklin Park sign on Seaver Street on the Roxbury side of the park, this entrance is a popular one from the Grove Hall neighborhood. To the left of the entrance is the Tiffany Moore Tot Lot. If you follow the path to the left you'll come to the spectacular old Bear Dens. Straight ahead and you'll get to the Playstead ballfields and White Stadium. Follow any of these directions and you'll connect with the one-mile loop around the Playstead and White Stadium. All the paths are either paved or packed dirt and easy for a bicycle to maneuver. Humboldt Avenue, leading to the park has wide sidewalks if bicycles want to avoid the traffic.

Elm Hill Avenue Entrance: another Seaver Street entrance, a long block from Humboldt towards Blue Hill Avenue. This is the closest walking /bicycle entrance to the "Giraffe Entrance" at the rear of the Zoo.

Elgeston Square Entrance: at the corner of Walnut and Columbus Avenues, where Columbus turns into Seaver Street. A few beautiful old stone steps leads one into the park. Stay to the left and you'll come to the old Bear Dens, to the right and you'll find White Stadium and El Parquesito de Hermandad, a children's playground with a great sprinkler for hot summer days.

Walnut Avenue Entrance: Just down from the Egleston Square corner, bicycles and strollers can avoid the stairs and enter a broad, paved roadway (without cars) at the top of School Street. This leads right to El Parquesito de Hermandad, a wonderful playground adjacent to rocks and woods for climbing and exploring.

Williams Street Entrance: on the Jamaica Plain side of the park, off Forest Hills Street. Williams Street starts at the well-known pub for local politicians, Doyle's, and runs east to the park. For bicyclists coming from the Southwest Corridor Park or the Arboretum, this is the "friendliest" entrance. Travel along the Arborway until you get to Shea Circle (the traffic circle in front of the park), turn left onto Forest Hills Street (don't enter on the main park road which is filled with car traffic). Travel along Forest Hills, one side has wide sidewalks, until you get to the traffic light and enter the park to your right. Go straight down this path, past the 99-steps on your left, and under Ellicott Arch. You'll connect with the 2.5 mile paved Loop Path that goes around the golf course, across the old stone bridges of Scarboro Pond, past the Mother's Rest sitting area, and through woodlands. If you venture off the main path you'll find ruins, lookouts, and other hidden treasures.

Wales Street Entrance: another way to get to the 2.5 mile walking Loop Path, which is a great place for children to learn to ride a bike. The entrance is at the unmarked Dorchester corner of the park at Blue Hill Avenue and American Legion Highway. FPC has recently restored the stone dust paths leading into the park, cleared brush, done tree maintenance and repaired the masonry on the old stone fountain at Mother's Rest, just in from the entrance. There is a small children's play area to the left of the entrance, along the Loop Path and the popular American Legion Picnic Ground. Dot Bike, a new bicycle advocacy group in Dorchester is working to have a bike lane installed along Talbot Avenue, from Codman Square to Franklin Park. If you walk to the right on the Loop Path as you enter the park, you'll come to the Golf Clubhouse, the only spot in the park with public bathrooms and bicycle racks. There's a full-service grill at the Clubhouse - you can sit at outdoor tables in the warm weather and look out over the rolling landscape of Frederick Law Olmsted's Country Meadow.