Blackstone River and Canal Trail Walk

2.4 miles (3.9 km)

The Blackstone River and Canal Heritage Trail begins at the River Bend Farm Visitor Center in Uxbridge, part of the Blackstone River and Canal Heritage State Park. This park spans about 1,000 acres along the Blackstone River and its historic canal.
It offers miles of multi-use trails through woodlands and meadows, and facilities for walking, cycling, picnicking, canoeing/kayaking and fishing. The restored canal towpath here is flat and well-graded: it’s packed gravel with no steps, making it easy to walk or bike, and accessible for strollers and wheelchairs. The park’s highlight is Rice City Pond – a broad, slow-moving stretch of the river – which lies just south of the trail and is well known as a good spot for wildlife viewing. The setting is pastoral and historic, with open fields and stone walls reflecting the valley’s agrarian past, mixed with river and canal scenery and forested sections.
From the visitor center the trail heads north for around 4 km toward the Northbridge area (sometimes called Plummer’s Corner or Plummer’s Landing). Along this route you pass under old stone-arch canal bridges, such as the Hartford Avenue bridges over the canal and river. The towpath follows the river and meadow edge, offering wide views of wetlands, ponds and distant hills. Wildlife is abundant: walkers and cyclists commonly see waterfowl such as mallards and geese on the water, as well as great blue herons hunting fish along the canal bank and painted turtles sunning on fallen logs or rocks in the river. The entire Blackstone watershed supports a wide variety of birdlife, and songbirds, herons, kingfishers and other marsh birds are frequently seen. The overall feel is peaceful and natural – you are walking in a restored piece of early-19th-century infrastructure, surrounded by fields, hardwoods and calm river water. Both walkers and cyclists find this stretch very accessible and scenic.
Beyond the 4 km stretch north of the state park, the historic canal towpath trail ends near Plummer’s Landing on Church Street in Northbridge. If you want to continue, the canal itself stops here; beyond this point, cyclists typically connect to nearby roads or other trails. However, the Blackstone River Bikeway – a related multi-use trail – continues southward from Uxbridge into Blackstone, Massachusetts. A paved segment runs from Uxbridge to Blackstone, crossing several old canal bridges and passing the historic Millville lock. In the broader picture, planners envision a continuous 48-mile trail from Worcester, Massachusetts to Providence, Rhode Island. The section from River Bend Farm to Plummer’s Corner is one scenic, historically rich segment of that larger corridor.

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