Explore Our Local Parks, Hike #1: Chehalem Ridge Nature Park

Activity Notes

This is the first of 4 hikes located in parks in and around the Portland Metro area.

Other hikes are:

November 20th: Oxbow Regional Park

November 25th: Milo McIver State Park

December 9th: Furthest Reaches of Forest Park

The first two hikes will be walked at a moderate pace ( ~2 mph), the last two will be walked at an approximate 3 mph pace.

This hike is in Chehalem Ridge Nature Park, which runs above the Tualatin Valley and is the largest public park on Portland's West side. We will hike on a combination of timber road and trail, to and then along the ridge for approximately 7 miles, and our elevation gain should be about 1000'. We will meet at the  Sunset Transit Center ,  at 9:00 AM, to carpool to the park. The park is located  HERE , and we will begin hiking at approximately 9:45 AM. We should return to the Transit Center between 2:30 and 3:00 PM.

"Chehalem" translates as "outside place" in the tongue of the Atfalati, the indigneous peoples that originally resided in the Tualatin and Northern Willamette Valleys before being effectively forced to move to the Grand Ronde and Yakima reservations. No person claiming Atfalati heritage has been documented since 1914.