A fun place to play, and a perfect spot to access lovely local trails!

I love discovering unexpectedly beautiful walks/hikes in DC. Westmoreland Park is nothing short of spectacular in the heart of Washington DC!

To navigate to the parking lot you will drive through a beautiful neighborhood for about .3 miles. The lot is adjacent to the spacious play area including two playgrounds, tennis courts, a basketball court, and swings for kids and babies. Let your kids run free and enjoy the playgrounds and field to kick a soccer ball. Bonus, behind the entrance sign of “Westmoreland Park” there is a great tree for your kids to climb.

You will notice a paved trail when you pull into the parking lot.  For a fun walking adventure, we suggest hitting the trails after you’ve let your kids play on the playground. Happyly Insider tip: the trail has two options: go straight (which dead-ends in about 50 yards) or we suggest veering right on the paved trail (it’s a steep decline about .12 miles to the flat main trail).

Once you get to the bottom of the short decline you will have a few options:

1. Proceed straight to a bridge (easy to wander down and kids can skip rocks in the water).
2. To the right is a nice trail along the water .5 miles until you hit Massachusetts Ave.
3. To the left about .6 miles (crossing a few bridges) until you hit Crescent Trail
4. You can complete an entire loop (this will be long if you have little ones walking and the Crescent Trail can be quite busy at times with bikers). About 2 miles total.

We’ve completed all four options and our favorite is Out and Backs. The kids have more fun doing this plus it’s stroller, bike and scooter friendly! We love crossing the bridges, throwing rocks in the water and the paved trail is beautiful = wide, covered with trees and not too busy (major wins for us).

Happyly Insider Tip: there are a few inclines, make sure to save energy for the uphill walk back to your car. It is short but gets your heart pumping. We love having races to the top – everyone has fun plus leads to less complaining when I make a game of it.

Great selfie spot: capture a fun picture on any of the little bridges!

Amenities:

Porta-potty

Playground for older kids and younger kids

Basketball Court

A large flat field to play soccer or have a picnic

A few picnic tables

Two Tennis Courts

Plenty of Parking

There is plenty of parking but when we left around 4 PM the playground was getting busy, both tennis courts were taken and a group of middle schoolers were playing basketball.

Bonus: Westmoreland Park is exactly .7 miles less than a 5 minutes’ drive from Millie’s (one of our favorite family-friendly restaurants). Spring Valley has a few great family-friendly spots including Compass Coffee and Pizza Paradiso  (all within 5 minutes of Westmoreland Park).