Powell Butte Nature Park

What a great little spot in the middle of the city. Lots of different trails with views. of mt.hood, and st.helens. you can walk through the Forest or go into the valley. It’s great when it’s raining as well because the park is so heavy with trees you can only hear the rain hit the leaves if it’s not raining too hard.
It’s a great spot to ride in too. It’s connected to the spring water trail with easy access to get into the park and maps to help you maneuver throughout. It’s a great kid friendly park with lots to look at including deer!

Great views and easy trails.
Understandably, no off leash area, but we still enjoyed!

Cute park! Trails are super nice and clean. The trails are well marked and really easy to follow! Great for a short hike or a full on day! We take our dogs here every time and they love it. Plenty of park for everyone! Great views of all the peaks on clear day.

I’ve been walking the trails of Powell Butte Nature Park for years now. Even though I no longer live in the Portland area this is usually one of my first spots to return to when I’m back in town.
The views are so lovely and the trails are never crowded. It can be a bit tricky to find the entrance since there isn’t clear signage posted on Powell but once you’re in the park you will feel like you’re worlds away from the city.
My favorite is to head into the wooded areas and enjoy the majesty of very large, old growth trees. There’s just nothing like the quiet tranquility that being in nature can provide.

It’s not bad. At least they are trying to save it. Hah. I liked it with less construction parking and such. Used to jog here almost every month but not anymore.

Love this park! The views are incredible, the trails are lovely, and there has recently been a great deal of upgrades. A wonderful place to take a walk after work or a nice hike on the weekends if you want to stay in town.

Absolutely a joy to visit! Come on a clear day and you can get your month’s worth of vitamin D. The trails are very well maintained, clean, safe, and just a pleasure for various activities from a quick stroll to a bike ride or a run. Be warned that some of the trails are for equestrians, and so, you tend to see quite a few mounds of poo. Wishing that those folks cleaned up after themselves. Another sad part is that the visitor center was closed and boarded up with notice indicating it was vandalized.

I’m OBSESSED with this place. The views are incredible, and the soft surface is great for walking, hiking, running, or biking. I ran 12 miles and the time passed so quickly due to to the beautiful views. Alot of the trails off the main trail are dirt and go up and down, so you really get your work out in. there are some openings where you have views of mountains, and the rural setting in front of it provides something different than other places in Portland. The park is open until 8 too, so you can stay and see a beautiful sunset. I will definitely be back here to run.

Powell Butte Nature Park is an exceptional park. It is very beautiful and filled with lots of explanations for its many sights. There is a vast array of grass, trees and views of the locality. This park can be reached by the nine bus line and walking a bit into an area dominated by houses. The trails are constantly reinforced with posts, being easy to follow without getting lost. Benches are common, though a drinking fountain can be found outside the visitor’s center.
This was an instance where I did not know what I was in for by going to this park. I loved the surprise. The park immediately met me of one of those beautiful scenes you get when you are driving your car in the country. There was a beautiful pasture, tall trees and a semblance of history with some of the buildings. Trees of all different kinds surrounded me on the trails. It was an intriguing experience. I took the mountain trail. I was happy that I did.
Try to visit the Powell Butte Nature Park.

i walked my dogs here. its a great place for a hike! really long trails and great scenery. the trails are easy to fallow and marked perfectly!

Great variety of trails. You can’t beat the location for want this park has to offer.

Big park with good trails. Many of the secondary trailed feel very natural and clean. Not gobs of people trampling over everything. There are hours of trails that are not very difficult, but be ready for some hills.
You will definitely see dogs, so beware the off leash ones that are almost always pit-​bulls. The neighborhood Has a lot of these people that don’t seem to care about other people walking the trail with their animals on leash.
It’s a good park.

We love hiking up and around Powell Butte, and mountain biking as well. We even had our engagement photos taken there! At the top you’ll get gorgeous views of Mt. Hood, Mt. St. Helens and Mt. Adams. We like to start off hiking from the Springwater Corridor, or around SE 145^th & Ellis Street. Fun fact: Powell Butte has a serious underground water reservoir that holds 50 million gallons and more than 85% of the water supplied by the Portland Water Bureau goes through Powell Butte.

An awesome place to walk ! It cost nothing & soon the construction will be completed. One of my favorite places in the city. What a panoramic view. I wish I had a horse, you can ride them up there, how cool is that? My walking map says it’s about 1.75 miles round-​trip to the top from the parking lot. I walk at a brisk rate, I would allow about a half an hour walking round-​trip and 10 to 15 minutes at the top just to look around.

i live directly below powell butte so i am/​was here more often than most. it is a nice getaway for me– the country girl transplanted to the city. it is so different now though, since it has re-​opened the main parking area, and i haven’t yet made up my mind if i like it or not. ok, i don’t. but i do. but i don’t.
there is so much parking now i doubt anyone will be circling around and around and around waiting for a parking spot to open up. also, all of that ample parking is now paved. there is a fancy new visitors center that i have not yet been in, and probably wont go into. im glad the park keeper got a lovely new home. im sad that the «nature park» is a gigantic leaking water reservoir. all that construction sure is nature-​y. the trails are lovely wether you are walking, biking, running or horsing around. I’ve used all of them for all of those purposes and i have to say, my biggest complaint by far (besides the construction of that monsterous reservoir) is all of the SHIT. people!!! PICK UP YOUR DOGS POO!!! i mean, it is just *everywhere* and its nasty and i do not go there as much as i used to or as much as i like because of all the damn poop! it’s on the paved paths, on the dirt paths, on the side of the paths, its on top of other poop, its on your shoe if you don’t look down while you are walking. POOP!
there are some very beautiful spots to discover around the butte. the south and west sides are my favorite. i always like to sit at the bench at the top of the first paved path and contemplate the city. it’s my bench, in case you were wondering ;) please be respectful and stay on the trails. please. not many cities are so blessed with nature preserves and awesome parks as we here in Portland are. if you open your eyes and are aware you will be delighted with such a variety of wildlife. I’ve been to major cities all around the world (twice) and Portland is so rich and diverse with nature and that is quickly fading.
and beware the poop.

First of all, me and my friend are both beginners. Unilocal recommended this location since I live close to this area and many trails at this site are fit for people who are not experienced.
Pros: (1) spacious parking lot
(2) many trails with different landscape (forest, grassland, wetland, and something I forgot) and soil materials (e.g. Gravel vs sand)
(3) good scenery
(4) clean potty
(5) HANDICAP ACCESSIBLE*
*only few trails
Cons: (1) horrible map– we got lost many times and the «new» map is not helpful at all
(2) lots of unclaimed poop bags or just poop in general– maybe more trash can available in paved road?
Expect: (1) lots of bugs (2) noise from construction (3) possible new trail (s) (4) greeting from friendly fellow hikers
Conclusion: not bad, will come back again after study the area more. Could give 3.5 stars if I can but Unilocal say no :(

I’ve been coming to this nature trail since I was a teenager hanging out with my «alternative» friends while they did their… not… illegal… recreation.
I brought Claire here the other night for the first time in many years, as the sun began to sink. We’d just filled up on bbq at the folk’s house with some family friends. We needed to burn some calories.
Claire told me she didn’t want to get caught in the trail after dark, and I agreed that we’d be out before then. Unfortunately, we were CLOSE to out, when it suddenly became pitch black. She’s very unfamiliar with this trail, and while it’s vanilla to somebody who knows it inside out, it can be a bit frightening to a newb. She got a bit panicky, even though a pitch black night at the Sandy River Delta (where plenty of transients camp out) doesn’t faze her. She expressed a great concern about where we were going, but I told her what the next few «landmarks» were that we’d see, and sure enough they appeared within a few minutes and we were out.
She seems disenchanted with the trail now despite how easy it is. She didn’t even care about the big beautiful owl that flew past us at the top of the trail. I still love this easy, peaceful walk however :)

Powell Butte nature park was suggested by a neighbor a few weeks ago and on a really nice sunday, I ventured out that way.
This place actually gets two separate reviews because it’s two parks basically. Trimet drops you off at around 162^nd and Powell and that’s not good. Construction, construction and more of the same crap. There are four things you will see plenty of at the northeastern part of Powell Butte and those are saplings, fences, dog crap and horse crap. Not a whole lot to keep one interested. The view up on the butte is pretty good but not a whole lot else.
The second part of this review is when I headed south and found the Goldfinch trail heading into the forest. Here is where it got good. The trail takes you through turns slowly heading back down. Bikes and horses are allowed on these trails so be aware. The Goldfinch linked up with another trail and I made it out the southeast corner around 136^th. Apparently if you bike the outer path it’s a 40 mile trek around the park. Not bad.
So two stars for the northern part, four for the southern and three seems fair overall. Personally, Mt Tabor and Forest Park have more character and much more trails to go on but I might make it back here again.
Enjoy.

Upon my first visit, the main roadway was closed off due to some maintenance. I was disappointed because it was the weather beautiful out and I wanted to get out and explore.
Several days later, I was riding my bike on the Springwater Corridor going West, and notice a little sign that said Powell Butte Nature Park (around 156^th st?). The curious side of me said why not and decided to dive right in. On my first impression, this layout kind of reminded me of Forest Park.
Once in the nature park, it has the feeling that your miles out of the city. You could easily spend several hours walking the trails. I have to give props to the people who maintains the park and trails. The maintenance is well kept and very welcoming.
When I’m in a hiking mood, this is definitely one of my go to spots in the SE.

There has been some heavy construction goin’ on up here on Powell Butte, it’s part of the upgrade of the Portland water supply. But, the park is starting to recover, even if some construction is still in progress.
Close to the city, but still pretty wild. This used to be someone’s farm, you can see the old fruit orchard and the wide spaces for livestock, back in the day.
The main trail is paved, which makes it an excellent all-​weather place to get out and see nature.
If you bring a dog, be sure it stays on a leash, because the entire park is an official wildlife space. You are not allowed to walk off trail because of the wildlife protection in effect.
Be sure to take a look at the photos!