Eli Boschetto
The leaves are changing, the temps are dropping, and the days are getting shorter. It’s time to get outside before we enter the long dark of another Northwest winter. Grab your boots, a jacket and your favorite warm, pumpkin-spiced beverage and go. Here are five great fall walks around Portland.
1. Stroll the City Summit: Hoyt Arboretum
Get above downtown in this delightful garden in Washington Park where you can wander easy paths and do some serious leaf-peeping. Roam the deciduous sections where oak, maple, beech and walnut trees display their autumn hues and create a vibrant and colorful contrast against a backdrop of evergreens.
2. Enjoy Fall in the Forest: Tryon Creek
Lace up your boots and take a walk in this quiet woods where a kaleidoscope of autumn-colored maples, dogwoods and alders mix with vibrant vine maples, thimbleberries and huckleberries on a network of multiuse paths and hiking trails. Keep a lookout for some of the colorful forest fungi that appear this time of year.
3. Views from a Volcano: Powell Butte
Take in wide panoramas over eastern Portland and Gresham as a cacophony of fall color paints the surrounding neighborhoods in a patchwork of autumn splendor. Hike the trails below the summit amid vibrant vine and bigleaf maples, then try to spy distant volcanic peaks from the mountain-finder viewpoint.
4. Commune With Forest Giants: Orenco Woods
Take a walk in Beaverton’s newest community park where short, easy trails wander a wetland area under colorful maples, alders and oaks. Keep your eyes peeled for some of the resident wildlife, and be sure to visit the nature play area, where enormous stick sculptures of mystical forest giants cry out in silence.
5. Get in the Seasonal Spirit: Lone Fir Cemetery
Fall wouldn’t be complete without some Halloween fun. Take a walk around one of Portland’s oldest pioneer cemeteries under a canopy of color-changing maples, oaks, cherries, dogwoods and more. Check out the weathered headstones and monuments of some of Portland’s most famous—and infamous—founders.
Learn More
For more information on these and other Portland-area walks, runs, and hikes, pick up a copy of Urban Trails: Portland.
