10 min
Overview
Yes, Beaverton actually has beavers and at least a couple of them have made Willow Creek their home. The Willow Creek Nature Park and Greenway is a short riparian trail and boardwalk that includes the tall trees of Moshofsky Woods. Unless you are with small kids, this walk (1.6 miles in and out) may not be enough, so on the way back take a stroll down the Waterhouse Trail, which leads another 1.8 miles to the Merlo Road MAX Station and an entrance to the Tualatin Hills Nature Park. While the Waterhouse Trail is on grassy expanses under power lines with a few busy roads to cross, you'll also pass a pond and Waterhouse Lake. Eventually, the Waterhouse Trail will become part of the Westside Trail system, planned to connect Bethany in the north with the Tualatin River National Wildlife Refuge in the south. From the trailhead, join the Willow Creek Trail on a boardwalk. Red osier dogwood, big-leaf maples, Oregon ash, cottonwoods, oaks and willows form the thickets around the creek, which is on your right. Pass access points leading to suburban streets on the left, but keep to the boardwalk. At a couple of viewing platforms, you can look at the creek itself as it flows quietly through a dense stand of reed canary grass. Head away from the creek to a soccer field under powerlines and the Willow Creek-Waterhouse Trail Junction. Keep right here and resume the boardwalk. Enter a copse of large Douglas-firs and grand firs on a paved path through Moshofsky Woods. Resume the boardwalk, and head along the creek thickets. A bridge crosses the creek to the right. Keep left on the paved path and enter Winthrop Bike Park. You may see evidence of beaver activity along the creek here. The paved trail leads up to 173rd Avenue and a view over the wetland of Apollo Ridge Park, a small protected wetland with no trails. Return to the junction with the Waterhouse Trail. Going right, pass by the soccer field and then a port-a-potty to cross Mission Oaks Drive and head up a slope in Waterhouse Powerline Park. The paved trail leads un
Trail Stats
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51 m
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Photos
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400px-WillowCreekWaterhouseMap
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250px-Grand_firs%2C_Moshofsky_Woods
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250px-Mock_orange%2C_Willow_Creek_Nature_Park
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