Mount Hood Memorial Park

Directions to

Parking for Melrose's Mount Hood Memorial Park

The Park is a 235 acre gem dominated by a golf course, several large ponds, perhaps the "craggiest" rock formations to be found anywhere in the greater Boston Area and, of course, Mount Hood, from the top of whose 200-plus-foot-high peak terrific views of downtown Boston and Revere Bay can be had (and a stone tower built from the same plans as those in the Fells and Lynn Woods waits to be admired). Best of all, the Park includes (or is abutted by) a generous helping of conservation land which also features ponds and crags; among the more-or-less marked routes are the Rocky View Trail (which, quoting from the Park's website, "follows a course up hills and through low shrubs"), the Knox Memorial Trail ("runs westerly along the perimeter of a pond, then in a southerly direction to a large rock outcropping offering a terrific view of the pond and the surrounding natural setting"), and the ten acres of Flagg Acres Trails ("scenic wooded area with steep hills"). 

Thanks to the golf course, the Park is supported by a large, sure-to-be-plowed-in-winter, fully macadamized lot; for MapQuest devotees, its coordinates are (closely enough for government work) "100 Slayton Road" in "Melrose". For the rest of you (except those who know a back way) the best bet is probably to cross your fingers and use Routes 128/95 and 93, as follows:

From Route 128/95

Drive 128/95 to Exit 37A and merge onto Route 93 South toward Boston. Continue 2.3 miles to Exit 35 (Winchester Highlands/RT-28/Stoneham/Melrose) and get off there. At the bottom of the exit ramp turn left (this is Fallon Street – going right here brings you quickly to a dead end) and continue a short distance, under Route 93, to the stop sign at Park Street. Turn right on Park Street. In about 0.2 miles you’ll come to a set of lights (Route 28); drive straight through them onto North Border road. Continue along North Border Road as it metamorphoses into South Street, Pond Street, and Woodland Road (don't worry, you'll never know this is happening), in the process passing by the Stone Zoo. Approximately 1.4 miles after crossing Route 28 at the lights, turn left onto Pond Street and descend through the Virginia Woods section of the Fells 0.3 miles to the first of many sets of lights. Drive straight through these lights (here Pond Street becomes West Wyoming Avenue and the street signs soon turn to Melrose red) and continue another 0.8 miles, over the MBTA commuter rail tracks, to the lights at Main Street. Turn left onto Main Street then, 0.2 miles later, right onto East Foster Street (stop lights here). After another 0.2 miles, turn right onto Lebanon Street and, in the blink of an eye (less than 0.1 miles), left onto Laurel Street. This, thankfully, ends the worst of the zigging and zagging. Drive Laurel 0.7 miles, through a host of stop signs, to the last one, at Sycamore Street. This is a five-way intersection; Sycamore crosses Laurel, making a "plus" sign with Slayton Road bearing off into its upper right hand quadrant. Take Slayton Road. There IS a street sign marking it; extra credit for spotting the sign. Drive about 0.2 miles or so to the end of Slayton Road, make a sharp left onto Stillman Road (which climbs past the golf course's impressive rock-walled clubhouse into a parking lot, but not the one you're seeking). After making this left, almost immediately turn right onto the access road just below the clubhouse and continue along it to the far end of the parking lot. That's where we'll be.

Tortuous as this route sounds, MapQuest predicts it will deliver a 24-minute driving time from Burlington. That, based on several visits, is pretty close to our experience.

*** Good Luck !!! ***