We just went to Oxbow Regional Park. It's in the Portland area, in Gresham. On the east side of Gresham towards Mt Hood lies Oxbow. The Sandy River flows thru this park and you can kayak, raft, float or fish the river. More than 200 years ago eruptions on Mt Hood changed the landscape and caused the Sandy River to flow in a U-shaped bend at the park, similar to the oxbow shape of collars used on oxen. Maybe we will kayak it when it warms up some. Yup...I'm a fair weather kayaker. The park has 12 miles of trails, some go thru an ancient forest, older trees with lots of moss on them. There are campgrounds there too, although for me I like more distance between me and the city. The day we went happened to be a "free" day at the park, no entrance fee-it was only $5. We did not hike all 12 miles of the trails, only about 3.5 miles. The path next to the river was very nice. Starting at the Happy Creek area gave us plenty of trail away from the road, just above and next to the river, and thru the Ancient forest. Mr UAW really likes hikes that have lots of ferns, water and forest. This park hit all of his favorites. The boat launch was our final destination. On the way back, we took the same trail until we got to the Ancient forest. Another trail thru the Ancient forest lead us back to our car. We then drove thru the rest of the park, saw the campgrounds then headed home. All in all we spent about 3 hours hiking, stopping for lunch on a bench overlooking the river. The trail map that we picked up at the visitor center was very helpful and the trails were well marked. It was a very nice hike.
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| Trail leading into Ancient Forest |
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| Mr UAW enjoying the ferns |
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| Lots of moss. Everywhere. |
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| The Sandy River erodes the banks |
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| Sandy River with one of its bends |
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| I was looking for one of the many birds we heard but never found it, trees were nice tho. |
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| On the way back |
