Located on the Columbia River, near the town of Washougal, Washington, the 1,049-acre Steigerwald Lake National Wildlife Refuge consists of historic riverine floodplain habitat, semi-permanent wetlands, cottonwood-dominated riparian corridors, pastures, and remnant stands of Oregon white oak.
Take a pleasant stroll through SW neighborhoods from Hamilton Park up to Council Crest then back through Albert Kelly Park, stopping to smell the flowers along the way.
Oregon White Oak is also called Garry Oak (Quercus garryana). Its range is from southwest British Columbia to southern California. In the Willamette Valley, oak savannas were created as native peoples used fire as a management tool to harvest certain plants, remove undergrowth in oak groves to make acorns more visible, and improve deer and elk habitat.
My family and I visited for the first time recently, and it has officially been added to the ever-growing list of places we can’t believe we somehow overlooked, but will now visit frequently.
Surrounding the confluence of two streams, Cedar Mill Creek and Beaverton Creek, is the Tualatin Hills Nature Park, a remarkably diverse 222-acre wildlife preserve with wetlands, forests, and streams that are habitat for all sorts of insects, amphibians, reptiles, birds, and mammals.
Community Park has three sports fields, tennis and basketball courts, a great playground, an award-winning skate park, a dog off-leash area, and five picnic shelters.
Located only minutes from downtown Portland, Tryon Creek State Natural Area is Oregon's only state park within a major metropolitan area and features weekly guided hikes, wildlife classes and seasonal highlights.
Adventure awaits on the region’s newest trail, which runs six miles from Milwaukie to Gladstone, through the heart of Oak Grove — along the historic route of the streetcar that ran from Oregon City to Downtown Portland from 1893 to 1958.
