Over the weekend, Maizey and I tried to beat the heat by spending time in some ocean-side cities to catch a few parks and check out some of the dog-friendly locations which we had missed on our previous trips.
On Saturday, we headed east then north. We stopped at the Medford dog park along the way to give Maizey a chance to stetch – and then went on to our first new park of the day. That dog park was located in the Quarrystone (development) at Overlook Point – it was a small park, and, although the sign did not specifically restrict access, given it’s location and the parking restrictions, it was pretty obviously intended to be used by residents of the apartments and condos at Quarrystone.Small (but not tiny), dirt and peastone ground cover, it did have some agility equipment and a bench. We then headed up to Newburyport.
March’s Hill is a gorgeous, grassy space, allocated for off leash use. It’s unfenced and right on the Newburyport Rail Trail. We took a little stroll down that pathway and found some interesting sculptures before getting back in the car to visit Moseley Woods. The woods were not technically a dog park. Dogs are allowed off leash once you get into the woods and trails – which was nice – and the city does provide poop bags and trash at the entrance. Maizey had a mud bath and then a wash off in the stream about a half mile into the trails.
After a bit more hiking, we stopped over at Newburyport Brewing – dogs are allowed both inside and on their “beer garden” patio – before heading home to the AC.
On Sunday, we headed down to Rhode Island to visit the 2 additional parks that were missed on last year’s visits – and, since one was in Newport, decided to do some strolling around the city (which is super dog-friendly). We started with some disappointment. According to news articles, Newport was building a park and intended to open it last year, but we couldn’t find it. There were three addresses mentioned in the articles – none of which panned out. We did, however, get to Morton Park. At Morton Park, there is a large open field which is available for dogs to play, just past the children’s playground. Although the signs indicate that dogs are supposed to be on-leash, several locals told us that everyone lets them off-leash in the field. Like March’s Hill, Morton Park is unfenced — and there are city streets surrounding it on three sides – so I would only recommend this space for folks who have a dog with good recall.
We had a nice lunch at the Tavern on Broadway, one of the many dog friendly restaurants in Newport, and after a stroll around the city, we headed up to Cumberland. The park in Cumberland is listed on Google as just “dog park” and, like Quarrystone the day before, this one is in an apartment/condo complex. This park was tiny. Nothing but a fenced dirt patch. Although there were poop bags and trash, there was no signage, no water, no benches, no equipment. As with Quarrystone, this was obviously built for the use of residents in the complex.
