Macleay Trail (connector)

The Walk

From the Macleay Boulevard parking it’s a soft, downhill grade of maybe a quarter-mile — Houle’s prose rounds it to a quarter, the park’s own measure puts it a hair longer, and either way you’ll barely notice the distance. Second-growth forest, natural-surface dirt underfoot, the traffic of Westover Heights fading behind you within a minute. There’s no view and no destination; the payoff is simply how quickly the quiet arrives.

Where it meets the Wildwood, the junction is — Houle’s honest word — “a little confusing.” Stay left on the Wildwood and you’re pointed into the heart of the park; from there the Cumberland, Tunnel, and the other south-of-Cornell trails open up into loops as long as you want them.

Runner’s note This is a local’s on-ramp, not a workout in itself — too short to be the point. Its value is the door it opens: from the Wildwood junction you can string together the south-of-Cornell trails into an honest loop and skip a trailhead scramble entirely. Coming back, remember it’s uphill to the road — a mild finishing grade, not a wall, but there all the same.

Two of the park’s Macleays share this name and neither is this one — don’t confuse this connector with the Lower Macleay (the Balch Creek canyon trail) or the Upper Macleay (the Pittock-hill trail). If the three-Macleays tangle needs sorting, the Upper Macleay entry lays it all out.

Before you go

Like all the park’s dirt, this one softens and turns muddy from the wet season into spring — nothing dramatic on so short a path, but worth firmer shoes. And set your expectations at the top: this is a neighborhood link, not a marked trailhead, so if you’re driving in from elsewhere you’ll almost always be better served starting at Lower Macleay or the Audubon side. Come here because you’re already near Westover Heights and want the shortest, most peaceful way into the Wildwood — that’s exactly the job it does well.