A northbound trail running parallel to Beach Drive that cuts up through Rock Creek Park and across the DC-Maryland border.
Start: Sidwell Friends School
End: Meadowbrook Local Park
Length: Approx. 0-15 miles
MAP
ROUTE GUIDE
This route begins at the rear entrance to Sidwell Friends School. This is on 37th St. in the little area that is sandwiched by Sidwell and Hearst School.
The starting location of the route
Cross the street so that you are on the Hearst side of the road. You should see this sign. The trail goes past this sign down the stairs behind it.
Hearst field is beyond this sign
Go down the steps
Where the red circle is, is where you want to aim for, because there is a staircase here that is the next part of the trail.
Across the field are another set of steps
After going down these steps (and one more flight below it), you will exit into a cul de sac.
You get to a culdesac
Go straight down the road until you get to an intersection (Springland & Reno).
Cross the street at the bottom of the hill
Once you cross the street, go straight towards Tilden Rd. and you will see the entrance to Melvin Hazen. It will be marked by this large sign.
Thus marks the entrance of the Melvin Hazen trail
Into the depths
Go down this trail. It’s pretty straightforward with minor junctions, but for the most part it’s intuitive to tell which is the main path.
One of the few junctions
Bridge means you’re close to the end of the 1st leg.
The trail will end at the back of a parking lot. Or, to be more specific, the 1st leg of Melvin Hazen will end at the back of a parking lot. Melvin Hazen is about .8 miles long, with .3 of it in the 1st leg and .5 of it in the 2nd leg. The two legs are divided by a bit of road.
The first leg of Melvin exits to a parking lot
Once you exit the 1st leg and run to the road ahead, you will see the entrance to the 2nd leg directly across the street. There is a crosswalk a block up to the left that I recommend you take, but you can also just take your chances and J-walk.
However, I really do not recommend it. There are few roads that are consistently very busy in DC and the time spent looking for a safe opening in traffic will be greater than the time it would take to run up to the crosswalk.
The entrance to the second leg is directly across the street
Close-up of the entrance
The second leg of Melvin Hazen is about half a mile long and will take you to the bottom of Tilden, by Beach Drive. It’s all downhill (approx 160 ft drop) but some parts can be slightly steep and you will be required to cross some streams.
Melvin Hazen is initially very steep
Still of Melvin Hazen
One of the streams you must cross
Melvin Hazen will finally exit into a field. You need cross the field and go left.
At the field go left
You wil pass bathrooms and water on your left if necessary. Otherwise, continue forwards across the field.
Bathrooms are available!
Merge onto this trail
Forward
Onto the dirt trail
Forward
You’ll get to this intersection. Go as straight as you can and you will find yourself on Beach Dr.
Go straight forward towards the red circle
Shortly afterwards, the entrance to the trail will emerge.
You’ll soon see a trail opening
At first, it’s going to be a very steep incline up.
Initially the trail is a steep incline
Go straight after cresting the hill
Immediately after cresting the hill, you will start to decline very quickly.
The steep incline will be followed by a steep descent
Hang a right at the bottom of the steep decline
At the bottom of the decline, go right and you will merge onto a trail with the creek and Beach Dr. on your right.
You’ll be running straight parallel to the creek
About a mile later, you will get to the end of the trail. Go right across the bridge.
The trail ends at this house. Go right across the bridge.
Keep running so that the creek is on your left. (For the record, we basically follow this creek all the way up to Meadowbrook Park, so you will have to follow the creek for a large portion of this run)
Forward
You’ll pass bathrooms and water fountains here
Right before this bridge, take the trail entrance tucked off to the right.
As you approach this bridge, a trail opening will appear on the right
This trail will basically lead us all the way to Meadowbrook Local Park. Upon entering this trail, it’s about 3.75 miles to the end. There are a few forks. I try to address all of them, but here are the rules.
- For the first 3 miles or so of this section of the trail, follow signs for Boundary Bridge. This bridge sits right on the DC- Maryland border.
- Don’t cross any bridges that go over the creek. (this doesn’t count small wooden bridges over tiny streams, I’m talking about rock creek itself)
- Don’t take any side paths. Stay on the main trail.
- Follow the path that stays with the stream
Follow these rules and you should make it to Meadowbrook. However, sometimes you do have to stray away from the stream or take what appears to be side paths so I tried to outline the trail all the way to Meadowbrook.
First, you get here. Go left.
Left here
As you approach the bridge ahead, take the path that goes underneath the bridge to the left.
Left path
This sign points towards Boundary Bridge. This is what we want to follow.
Follow signs for boundary bridge
Right here. (if you investigate the sign, you’ll see it points towards Boundary Bridge)
Right
Full confession, I’m not entirely sure about here. My notes indicate that you will get to this fork at this point in your run but I’m not entirely confident. My gut says go right. However, if you go right and the trail ahead doesn’t match up with the guide, go the other way.
Sorry.
Um…
You’ll then climb a hill and as you’re ascending, take the left path. This is small and looks like a side path.
Left
You get to this horn-shaped part of the trail that hooks around.
You’ll get to a part that does a nice little u-turn
Go straight ahead.
Straight ahead
Stay on the main path here by curving left:
About 2 miles into this segment or so, you’ll get here. Make a left. This is very important.
Left here
Immediately after, you’ll go under a bridge. (Note, the picture below is a view of the bridge upon exiting and turning around)
Under the bridge
After emerging from the bridge, take the left most path. This will appear to be straight ahead. It can actually be difficult to see this so stay vigilant.
Take the left path (it can be hard to see)
Eventually you will get to this crossroads. There may be a sign that says “Boundary Bridge” here. This crossroads marks the DC-Maryland boundary.
Congrats! You’ve ran to Maryland. Fun fact, this run is the sole run that goes through Maryland (the rest are all DC).
Also note, after choosing to take the left path (two pictures back), the entire rest of the trail to Meadowbrook is very prone to muddiness. Even if it’s not raining, if it has rained recently, it will be a swamp. See below:
This part (all the way to Meadowbrook) can be very muddy
In fact, after the trail starts to muddy, the entire trail kind of deteriorates. You’ll hit this point about 6 miles into your run, and if you turn around now, it will be 12 miles in total, so it’s really not a bad idea to turn around at that bridge, because the rest of the trail will be kinda sucky.
Anyways, if you’ve stuck with it, you’ll emerge onto this little bike path.
And not a few meters later, you’ll go back into this trail.
Final stretch! This part is especially confusing, but stay on the trail and you’ll get to the park very soon.
This part of the trail can be very difficult to find the path
Finished! You’ll exit on the far side of the park by the baseball fields.
Finished
And there are bathrooms here too.
Bathrooms
NOTES
You’ve got to appreciate how big Rock Creek Park is. It really makes DC a good city for a runner. In fact, if you continue to follow Rock Creek past Meadowbrook Local Park, it will take you up past Grosvenor all the way through Rockville terminating in Derwood!
So if it’s your (super)long run day and you’re feeling adventurous, maybe try following the creek all the way up to its northern terminus. Although I wouldn’t really recommend that because as the trail gets farther from DC, it begins to deteriorate in quality. The last mile and a half was incredibly muddy, kind of overgrown, and generally not very pleasant to run on.
The best part of the trail is definitely before then. This trail is definitely good for when you want to crank out an 8-mile run because you’re running on a good, well-maintained trail and it’s a great place to run! Compared to some other trails, this one has very few rocks and branches on the ground and the trails are nice and wide making it optimal.
My one other downside though is that there is such a large elevation drop in the first part of the run that finishing the run going back up such a steep hill is rather unpleasant. Admittedly, hills are always good training, but it’s so steep coming back up that it keeps this trail from earning a top spot among my trail rankings.
That being said, apart from its hills, it’s a very solid trail for all your long run needs.
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