Walden Pond is especially memorable to me for its beauty and its serenity. My favorite time to visit was late Autumn...there's a sort of inexplicable perfection about a hike in the brisk New England October air surrounded by turned foliage and crisp dead leaves underfoot. For people with a tendency towards introspection, Walden Pond is the perfect environment to get lost in your own thoughts for a few hours.

The trails around Walden Pond are impeccably maintained with the added bonus of a few plaques along the way noting historical significance. My dad brought me and my brother here often when we were young, and it was fun to talk about what Life in the Woods must have been like, well before I ever read Thoreau. It's possible that, because my exposure to this lovely place occurred long before I read Walden, that my expectations were managed a bit more than the average visitor.

That said, anyone who expects to experience nature exactly as it existed in 1854 should probably try somewhere further off the beaten path than Concord, Massachusetts.

I just returned from a weekend in Boston and I can recommend a visit to Walden Pond. It was a beautiful summer evening and I enjoyed the hike around the pond and all the natural beauty. Even the nearby railroad tracks add to the rural feel. There were not a lot of people so maybe late afternoon or early evening is a good time to visit. The only thing I found strange is that the bathrooms close at 5 PM when the park is still open.

I have to admit I was disappointed after reading Thoreau. I expected a quiet, sylvan setting, I suppose, and it is crawling with humanity.

A dandy place to swim. Use the main beach or find a little one of your own. The summer crowds are a bit of a drag, but the dense woods makes it feel less crowded especially in and around the tree-ringed parking lots. I like it! ...Cy

Definitely not the Walden Pond of the book, but it is definitely a peaceful retreat from the rest of the craziness. Great as a recreation area, and very quiet in the spring and fall. Also, if you're here, downtown Concord is worth a stroll around for some great shops. Pop over to Monument Square to the Colonial Inn for lunch.

Please, people. It's just a lake. Go swimming and pay no mind to those airplanes overhead. This is Don Henley's pet project, and as such, it gets national attention that it does not deserve.

It's not as grim as ElegantFire paints it to be... though she/he was right in one respect: it's not what I expected. There's 2 highways bordering the park where Walden Pond is, and that's disheartening; however, the "pond" (it is the size of a lake) is still gorgeous. If you sit down and hang out for a while, eventually you'll hit that moment of silence when everyone's gone and Thoreau's cabin site is behind you and the pond is still. That's when a trip to Walden Pond is worth it. Our world is so radically different from Thoreau's world, it's naive to expect otherwise.

Be prepared to be disappointed. If you're thinking Walden Pond is going to be this nice, quiet, serene place that was the source of Thoreau's inspiration like I did, you're going to be surprised. Not only was I surprised by how big the "pond" was, (more like a lake), but they've put in a beach house and have allowed people to swim, boat, and do whatever they want to the place. They have gift shops and roads and picnic areas all over the place. So much for simplified, eh?

I'm sure it has changed since I took swimming lessons there in 1945