Airport Park Loop Hike

Overview

This small woodland next to the McMinnville Municipal Airport was dedicated as a park in 1977. Galen McBee, director of McMinnville’s Parks and Recreation Department as well as its airport, used a CETA grant to hire a crew to build two loop trails around the property. Sam Gandusa, a local sculptor, installed several decorative concrete fountains and a whimsical “mushroom house.” The fountains no longer work, but you can enjoy a short stroll around the 20-acre park on both sides of a tributary of the South Yamhill River. The woods bloom with trillium, toothwort, and woods violet in the spring, and an added bonus - for some - is the occasional activity at the adjoining airfield. Take the trail leading into the woods to the left of the port-a-potty at the top of the parking lot. You’ll pass a picnic table and the first of Sam Gandusa’s fountains. Keep right under a canopy of white oak, Douglas-fir, and big-leaf maple. At a junction marked by a post, go left and drop to cross a wide footbridge over a creek. Reach the Mushroom House with its mossy cap, and bear right past another fountain to join the outer loop again at a fancy fountain inlaid with oyster shells. Make a right, and pass a small fenced enclosure that protects a patch of Pacific hound’s tongue (Cynoglossum grande). Pass through a dense thicket next to the airport, and wind around past some spurs that lead out to the airfield. Then you’ll note a grass field and enter a Douglas-fir/maple wood. Cross a footbridge over the creek, and walk by a big Douglas-fir next to a bench. Reach the junction for the short loop again, and make a right. Retrace your steps over the creek to the Mushroom House and to the junction with the outer loop. Go left to take a sturdy footbridge over the creek and return to your car.

Trail Stats

Photos

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