Memorial Park Area Information
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Dubbed “the largest urban park in Texas,” Houston's Memorial Park covers approximately 1,466 acres just inside Loop 610 at Woodway. The park includes Texas’ top-rated municipal 18-hole golf course, as well as facilities for tennis, softball, swimming, track, croquet, volleyball, in-line skating, cycling and a popular three-mile running course.
Houston's Memorial Park encompasses 1,466 acres of coastal woodlands, making it larger than many state parks and one of the largest urban spaces in America. The park is tucked into a lush and humid forest belt at the confluence of loop 610 and I-10. Size is not the only aspect of Memorial Park that rivals many state parks; the trail systems in Memorial are both extensive and challenging.
The most visible activity in Memorial Park is jogging, Houstonians flock here in droves to run on well kept trails of crushed pebble and packed earth. The park's official "jogging" trails circle the golf course providing a popular 2.9 mile loop. This trail also runs parallel to Memorial and Woodway boulevards. Due to the amount of traffic in the area persons with respiratory illnesses and sensitivity should be cautious to observe ozone and smog alerts before exercising here.
A well maintained tennis court is popular as well as the Memorial Park Municipal Golf Course; rated one of the top municipal courses in the country. A popular local restaurant runs a concession adjacent to the tennis court and golf course, public showers and restroom facilities are available as well. The second most popular trail system in Memorial Park are the bike trails. While being marked as "bike" trails, they are in fact open to runners and hikers alike.
Common sense and safety rules should be followed by all who use these trails, and bike riders are required to announce that they are passing through tight areas or around corners. A circular driving area known as the picnic loop is popular with roller-bladers and has many day use picnic tables with barbecue grills.
In addition to the many trails the park is host to several softball/baseball fields, as well as a soccer/football filed. The park is also host to Houston's annual Bayou City Art Festival, which was formerly known as the Westheimer Arts Festival.
The bike trails are said to equal roughly eight miles in total, people who wish to extend their mileage can simply follow the myriad of trail junctions and pathways that make up Memorial Park's trail system. Because these are "bike" trails they are designed to be challenging.
These trails are second to none in the quality of exercise they offer anyone using them, be they on wheels or foot. There are numerous hills with ample up and down courses, runs and straight-aways. Many sections of the trail way parallel creek beds and Buffalo Bayou, where steep drops of twenty to thirty feet greet unwary trekkers. The trails pitch up and down many slopes, with sharp turns and zigzag patterned trails requiring constant effort and activity. Hikers and bikers will feel the burn as they power their way up many steep inclines and down long plunging declines in the trails.
The trails that begin on the western side of the park, all have colorful names. A power line right away follows train tracks that lead back to the banks of Buffalo Bayou. Once near the bayou, the trail know as "Ho chi Min" begins, it snakes in and around numerous color coded paths and along the bayou. Well healed River Oaks borders the other side of the bayou, and the sight of a full grown lama "mowing" the lawn of one mansion makes for an unusual sight.
The junctions and loops that comprise this section of trail way are named variously, South Loop, Central Loop, the Civil War trail etc. The trails in this section offer the most strenuous work out along the regions which border the bayou.
There are numerous post with color coded placards noting which trail way one is upon, red designates the "Ho Chi Min" trail. The real Ho Chi Min trail was a grueling highway of death, but at Memorial Park the Ho Chi Min trail is one of the easiest trails to follow. It joins up with the blue colored main trail way, which features sections nicknamed North Rim, South Rim and West and North Circle.
This blue section of trail is popular with mothers and children, who can be spotted riding bikes and big wheels on most days. The black color coded trails are rated most difficult, and are known as the Cambodia and Laos trails. These trails are actually more appropriate in name than the aforementioned Ho Chi Min trail. Beginning near the picnic loop driveway, this trail quickly diverts away from Memorial Drive and enter the most challenging series of trails in the park.
These trails require strenuous work from both bikers and hikers. In the summer heat they will quickly wind a person and require ample water. A small "two minute loop" section actually takes much more than that to travel on foot, and this loop is one way to find the trail called Laos. This long trail way leads along the bayou and joins up with the park's blue colored main trails after a couple of miles hiking.
The foliage is lush and plentiful, with some sections leading through densely vegetated areas offering many peaceful views. These trails pitch sharply up and down through numerous rolling and hilly landscapes. The actual possibility of a biker being able to navigate the Laos trail us minimal. Though we have seen many bikers along the rest of the trails, we have never seen any on the Laos section. One would rarely think they were in the center of the fourth largest American city if they did not know better.
We have found the trails at Memorial Park to be fulfilling and challenging, and surprisingly some of the best we have ever hiked. On several recent trips we make the effort to hike each trail and connecting trail, the task took between three and half to four hours each time.
Millions of Houstonians have no idea how varied and challenging a set of trails lie
within a short drive of their home. Memorial Park offers a multitude of exercising
opportunities and some of the best hiking trails in the Houston area.
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