15 min
Overview
Eighty-acre Hendricks Park, established in 1906, is Eugene’s oldest park. It drapes forested hillsides in east Eugene but also includes a native plant garden and a Rhododendron Garden. A network of trails takes you to every corner of the park, which includes mature Douglas-fir forest, an oak forested ridge, camas fields, and a connection, via the Ribbon Trail to the Ridgeline Trail system (See the Ridgeline Trail Hike). The park’s landscape has changed considerably since the acreage was donated by local philanthropists Martha and Thomas Hendricks. The ridges and slopes were then dominated by oak savanna which, in ensuing decades, was aggressively taken over by Douglas-fir. Restoration of a portion of the oak savanna is underway at Oak Knoll. Walk out to Fairmount Boulevard, and then make a right (You’ll see the restrooms across the road.). Take the gravel road - the West Trail - and pass a junction. Follow the road until it becomes a trail that contours the Douglas-fir hillside below Fairmount. Blackberry and ivy are invasives here, and many trees came down in the February 2019 snowstorm. Cross a gully, traverse a little more, and then take steps leading up to the left to Fairmount. Go left on Fairmount about 100 yards, and see the bollarded Old Road Trail leading up to the right. Follow the Old Road as it traverses a slope where two kinds of trillium bloom in the spring. Reach the old fountain at a five-way junction on a saddle. Take the first trail to the right, the Highland Trail (The second trail on the right leads to the Ribbon Trail, which connects to Eugene’s Ridgeline Trail system.). Hike up past a seed removal station, and keep right at a junction near Highland Drive. Follow the trail as it dips below the ridge crest and passes through an ocean spray thicket. Rise to a short loop at the crest of the ridge forested by gnarly, stunted white oaks. Camas and wild cucumber bloom profusely here in the spring, but there is also poison oak. Return to the Old Road-Ribbon Trail Junction, and keep straight o
Trail Stats
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73 m
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Photos
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400px-HendricksParkMap
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250px-Old_Road_Trail_on_Fairmount_Blvd
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