This article is featured in the 2025 Freshman Special Issue.
From “pretend gay weddings” during Pride Month to running clubs, Dartmouth’s Pine Park is a center of student life.
The park was established in 1905 to protect a space of 45 acres for the people of Hanover, making it the town’s oldest conservation area, according to the Pine Park Association, the park’s current owners. Donations have grown the forest to nearly 100 acres in the century since.
The park offers more than six miles of public trails, traversing through dense woods, along Girl Brook and down to the Connecticut River. Entrances are located on Rope Ferry Road, Occom Ridge and Route 10, with access to the riverbanks being notably steep.
Recent changes have further expanded accessibility, according to the Pine Park Association website. Following the closure of the Hanover Country Club in 2020 during the COVID pandemic, nine acres of land formerly belonging to the Club’s golf course have been repurposed to create an immediate entrance from Rope Ferry Road.
Several freshmen said the park was a key part of their first year.
“It’s a very welcoming area for people that want to hang outside,” Benjamin Hsieh ’28 said. “Because there’s a lot of tree cover, you feel more connected to nature ... I know a lot of people do star gazing or go sledding in the wintertime.”
Hsieh also noted its prominent place in campus activities and organizations.
“I will usually be there when I’m running with the Dartmouth running team,” he said. “I know [First Year] Trips training was also there.”
Dartmouth triathlon athlete and runner Leo Weber ’28 also said that he went running in Pine Park with a Dartmouth outdoors club. “I don’t remember if it was the Dartmouth Running Team or tri[athlon], but I went for a run with one of those groups… My parents' first date was a hike. They always emphasized appreciating nature, and so when I go on runs in Pine Park, I really try to take [the nature] in.”
Layla Charron ’28 echoed similar sentiments concerning the park’s role in recreation and college life. She said that she visited the park with an environmental studies class to listen to nature sounds.
She also recalled visiting the park with her friends.
“I went one time in the evening with some friends and it was nice,” she said. We got to stargaze… and there were frogs!”
Jagger Stachtiaris ’28 said that he and his friends hosted a “pretend gay wedding” in Pine Park for Pride Month.
“I was one of the grooms!,” he said. For other rising sophomores, excursions to Pine Park had become part of their weekly schedule.
Aidan Miller ’28 said that “every time” he goes for a run he will “stop by.”
“I also occasionally just got for a walk there,” he said.
Hailing from Massachusetts, Miller found Pine Park to be a comforting reminder of his life back at home.
“I live in a really woody area, and growing up I’d have so many different forest trails, and I’d just explore all of them,” he said. “I knew how to get from my house to my cousin’s house in five different ways through these trails … [Pine Park] reminds you of that.”
Amelia Smith ’28, a New Hampshire native from outside the Hanover area, also highlighted the familiarity of Pine Park.
“I’ve always lived in [New Hampshire], so running through Pine Park really reminds me of my cross country seasons throughout high school,” she said. “The environment is wonderful.”
