Happy Valley Park Loop Hike

Overview

This walk takes you along a boardwalk through thicketed wetlands and then on chip trails up the slopes of Scouters Mountain. There is no connection to the Metro property there (see the Scouters Mountain Loop Hike), but you can combine the two hikes with a short drive. Bring binoculars on this hike: there are waterfowl in the wetlands and foraging perching birds flitting through the thickets along the way. Scouters Mountain forms a backdrop behind the playing fields here. Walk towards the restrooms and take the gravel track or the paved path heading south. These paths border the playing fields. You’ll reach a boardwalk leading left into the Happy Valley Wetland on Mount Scott Creek. Take the boardwalk, which can be very slippery when wet, and enter a dense thicket of hawthorn, Oregon ash, willow, spiraea, and red alder. Veer left to a viewing platform at a fenced cattail swale where red-winged blackbirds warble in the spring and summer; then continue east to the North Observation Deck. There is usually a cluster of tame mallards here that will come scudding for handouts. Continue on the boardwalk through thickets of Nootka rose to a junction. Go left to reach a more open space at a cattail wetland and a fenced pasture where you'll see more red-winged blackbirds. The trail reaches 145th Avenue and the Happy Valley Wetland Trailhead. This wetland is the source of Mount Scott Creek. Continue up 145th on the sidewalk, and cross it. Past Denali Drive, find a chip trail that leads along a wetland. Young alders shade the pathway, and chickadees and robins flit among the shrubs. Pass a play structure, and cross Denali to head up Lopez Avenue. Keep straight as you cross Spyglass Drive, and continue up an asphalt trail that veers right behind a fence. Now you’re on a narrow foot trail that switchbacks gently up in a native forest of Douglas-fir, big-leaf maple and sword fern. Look to your right as you ascend, and you’ll see the boundary markers for Metro’s Scouters Mountain Park (see the Scouters Mountain Loop Hike).

Trail Stats

Photos

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