It features thickets and gardens, rolling meadows, tall pines, and one of the largest naturally occurring stands of mountain laurel in the Commonwealth.

The most striking natural feature of the park is the primeval stands of white pine on the steep slopes and bluffs of the river, which appear never to have been logged.

The laurel forms a continuous thicket along the forest floor around the pines, which are so tall that their tops are not visible in the upper canopy from below.

The park covers approximately 450 acres (180 ha) of the right bank of the Merrimack River, a tidal estuary at its lower end.

The swift currents and high bacteria counts render the waters useless for swimming or bathing, as well as adding an element of danger to the careless boater.

Despite these dangers the lower river is home to a substantial industry of facilities for docking, storing and repairing recreational boats.

By 1950 the Merrimack River was for the most part devoid of marine and riparian life, due to chemical effluents from the cloth and paper mills upstream in Haverhill, Lawrence, Lowell, Manchester, New Hampshire and Concord, New Hampshire as well as the dumping of raw sewage into the river from every community on its banks.

Since then the industry has moved south, sewage is better treated and environmental laws have gone into effect and have been to some degree enforced in every community.

Dams upstream prevent the return of migratory piscines but maritime life on the lower river has improved to the point of supporting a new population of eagles.

The remaining forest between Bradford Road and the river was called the "Upper Woods", of which a small fragment hosts the eagles today.

In 1668 the General Court created Emesbury (Amesbury) and appointed one Mr. Goodwin ferryman of a new ferry to land near the mouth of the Powwow River.

Ferry Road ran along the right bank of the Merrimack to a gap in the bluffs of Upper Woods within the current borders of the park.

His son, Edward, went to Yale for a few years, resigned, and became an agent for a Boston merchant in the East India trade, Benjamin Gould, starting as a clerk.

They had many children, only five of which survived to adulthood, including Frederick Strong Moseley, born in 1852, who became a broker in Boston and was a director of the Shawmut Bank there.

Frederick proceeded to acquire and improve the Newburyport property, consulting and hiring the best landscape architects in Massachusetts of the day.

[5] Originally named Maudesleigh, the estate was created on agricultural fields by landscape architect Martha Brookes Hutcheson, one of the earliest female members of the American Society of Landscape Architects, who designed the grounds around the main house, entry drive, and formal gardens (1904–1906).

The main gate, the drives, the stone bridges and overlooks have survived, as well as stands of lilac, rhododendron and some of the fruit trees.

Except for select locations, the gardens and greenhouses have fallen into ruin, the walls scarcely visible on the overgrown hillside.

The Newburyport, Salisbury and Amesbury Fire Departments got the blaze under control around 3:30 P.M. Only the stone foundation and the chimney survived.

[7][8][9] The park has trails for walking, hiking, horseback riding, and cross-country skiing, and is also the home course of the Newburyport High School Cross Country Running team.