Halibut Point
State Park
Rockport, Massachusetts
- Address: Gott Avenue (Just of Rt. 127)
978-546-2997 - Hours: Open year-round, daily, sunrise to sunset; during summer, parking lot opens at 8 am.
- Admission: Pedestrians and bicyclists free. Halibut Point State Park operates a 70-car parking lot. From Columbus Day to Memorial Day, weekends and holidays, Trustees members are free (must present current membership card) and non-members pay $2 per private passenger car/motorcycle. Free parking at all other times of the year.
- Map
Map - Website: www.mass.gov/dcr/parks/northeast/halb.html and www.thetrustees.org/halibutpointreservation.cfm
- Trail: The Maritime Trail and The Industrial Trail
The weather-beaten bluffs of Halibut Point comprise a low rocky coastal shelf covered in bayberry, greenbriar, and shadbush. During storms, waves crash over the rocky shore. Tidal pools harbor snails, hermit crabs, and sea stars.
Above the reservation is the former Babson Farm Quarry, now filled by natural underground springs. Granite quarried here at the turn of the 20th century paved thousands of city streets and built bridges, tunnels, monuments, warehouses, and buildings, such as Boston's Custom House Tower.
Halibut Point is cooperatively managed by The Trustees of Reservations and the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Management (DEM), which acquired an adjoining 54-acre state park in 1981 with the assistance of The Trustees. DEM operates a small visitor center and museum dedicated to telling the story of Cape Ann's historic granite industry.