Portland Waterfront Loop Hike

Overview

This long loop takes you along both shores of the Willamette River from downtown Portland to the Sellwood Bridge. While the route is most often touted by cyclists, it’s also a very pleasant flat walk that never takes you more than 100 yards from the river. It reaches the city’s southern boundary at Powers Marine Park (a 1.7 mile out and back diversion), crosses the Sellwood Bridge, and then heads north past the Oaks Bottom Wildlife Refuge using the Springwater Corridor and the Eastbank Esplanade. After crossing the Steel Bridge, you can enjoy the various sights of Portland’s Waterfront Park before threading roads and trails in the booming South Waterfront area. Then take the South Waterfront Greenway Trail, still not completed in a couple of sections, back to the Willamette Park Trailhead. The hike makes use of small natural areas and riparian corridors while also touching on the throb of commerce and industry and noisy traffic corridors. A shorter loop that focuses on the downtown area is the Eastbank Esplanade-Waterfront Park Loop Hike. Take the paved path to the left of the restrooms at Willamette Park. You’ll be walking south above the Willamette River, with lawns, playing fields, and a play structure to your right. The path curves right under a line of tall cottonwoods, and a spur trail with steps descends to a small beach looking out to a mid-channel rock. (At low tide, kids will enjoy scrambling out to the rock via a makeshift causeway.) Reach the south boundary of Willamette Park under tall spreading oaks, and walk straight down Miles Lane. Then take up the gravel path. A spur leads left through Butterfly Park, planted with deciduous trees and forbs; from the river bank, you can get a downriver vista to Mount Saint Helens on a clear day. On the main trail, enter Willamette Moorage Park, cross Stephens Creek and then pass the entrance to the Macadam Park houseboat community with the Willamette Shore Trolley tracks to your right. As you approach the Sellwood Bridge, you’ll see a gravel road leading down

Trail Stats

Photos

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