Wildwood Trail - Zoo (MP 0) to Pittock Mansion

Wildwood Trail - Zoo (MP 0) to Pittock Mansion

Wildwood Trail is one of the many hiking trails that runs through Forest Park in Portland Oregon. There are miles and miles of trails running through the 20 or so miles of the wooded and hilly Forest Park. Wildwood runs the length of the park as one of the "main thoroughfares". It is 24 miles long (it is very serpentine) but is accessible by a number of trailheads throughout its length. Near downtown, the trail starts within earshot of the Oregon Zoo.

My partner and I have decided to hike all of the segments of the trail in medium length day hikes. Maps are available from Portland Park and Rec. that details each of the hikes and I will make sure and find a pointer to what they have online. But I may have some other insights or stories too, so I encourage you to read along. Otherwise I am just typing to myself. For the exercise. I am getting really strong fingers.

There is ample parking throughout the park. Most of it is free (and hidden), but the parking up close to the Zoo (inside the arboretum) is metered. Depends on how brave you are feeling. The metered parking is probably safer from random theft.

Fog over the Forest. That is Council Crest Radio Antennae sticking up there.

The actual start of the Wildwood trail is close to the Vietnam War memorial. This is an unusual war memorial. It is in the shape of a circle, with the walkway spiraling up out from the center. As it unwinds, it tells the history of the war in plaques that represent each year of the war. On that plaque will be some news about what was going on in Oregon at the time, what was going on with the war at that time, and the names of the Oregon citizens that were killed in the war that year. The Tet Offensive year is a big sign with lots of names.

Vietnam War Memorial Spiral Path

Now the Wildwood is winding through the Hoyt Arboretum. When we hike in the Arboretum (which is the part of Forest Park right next to the Zoo) we usually park at the Archery Range. Yes, it is a real Archery Range. It is set up with straw targets at a number of distances up to around 100 yards. Last year a big old Doug Fir fell out of the adjoining hill across the trail and into the range. They just cut it up where it lay and made it into very nice seating for people waiting at the firing line. This is a free range and there are almost always people there. Most are casual target shooters with recurve bows, but you see the occasional serious shooter (or hunter) with the big compound bows, and you often see more interesting things. One time it was a guy doing Japanese style archery. He had the asymmetric Japanese bow (made for shooting from a horse) and used the Japanese style of pull and release. I might want to get me a bow sometime. I need a left-handed one. I see them on Amazon.

Archery Range

Wildwood goes right past the range, you can grab it going North or South. If you go South, you follow it to the Zoo (at MP0) and then grab another trail to loop through the arborteum and back to the Wildwood. We use this for a 2 hour, 5 mile loop on days when we just want a quick hike. The Arboretum is fun to hike in. As you might have guessed from the name, there are many collections of trees and flowers. The trees are often marked, so you can learn tree names to try to impress your friends and relatives (Oh, that appears to be a Birch Bark Cherry tree, Sis. Didn't you ever study those?)

Birch Bark Cherry Tree

Dogwood in Bloom

Newton Sentry Maple
(no branches!)

As you hike west (north?) from the Archery Range you will pass a number of fun sights. The Portland Rose Gardens are someplace down there through the trees. You can't really see them (for the trees) but you do get a view down into the the formal Japanese Gardens. These gardens are worth their own visit and blog post, but I did stop to take a picture looking down into the big Koi pond.

Japanese Garden Koi Pond

This entire Forest Park is up in the hills west of Portland. Altitudes range from 200 to 800 feet with a lot of little streams and such snaking through. So there is a lot of up and down to the hiking. In one nice little gully,  just down hill from the visitor center, is the Redwood platform. This is a little wooden viewing platform set in a glen of towering redwoods (as opposed to a platform made from the wood of a Sequoia). It is protected and quiet with a view down to a little brook among the giants. This is a favorite place for weddings and other little social gatherings, so you must be able to rent it. But most of the time, you can just sit there for free and enjoy the trees.

The Redwood Platform (Built Amongst, not From)

View of Redwood Grove from platform

Not far past the redwoods, the Wildwood trail takes a turn off away from the Arboretum and heads North-ish.  Forest Park runs along the Multnomah Channel of the Columbia (or the Willamette) which is on the northeast side of the hills that separate the river from the Beaverton and Hillsboro flatlands. You are out of the Arboretum proper now and the Flora landscape reverts back to something a little more primal and a little less planned. This means mainly Doug Firs, Big Leaf Maples, and Alders as the main big trees with the usual Sword Fern, Oregon Grape, and Salal  as the non-invasive ground cover. Unfortunately, much of the ground cover is of the invasive sort and for that we have tons and tons of Swedish Ivy.

Sword Fern, Salal, Oregon Grape, and some of that dang Ivy.

Salmon Berry. I think called thus because it looks like
a cluster of Salmon Eggs.

Maiden Hair Fern

Lots of big Doug Firs in the Park.

There is a major street crossing pretty soon after leaving the Arboretum. Careful here. It is marked for crossing, but not very well and the cars just come blaring down the street and seldom stop for hikers. Once across, you have to climb back up out of the gully. Pittock Mansion is up near the top of the hill, don't you know. With the view for the rich people. The trail winds its way up the Hill and right below the backyard of the mansion. Right now, a part of the trail that goes up from the Mansion access road to the parking lot is closed from a land slide. So you need to just follow the road up the last little bit. That is OK. This road isn't that heavily traveled and the cars are looking out for people. You also get a good view of the Mansion from the street.

Pittock Mansion:

We went up to see the Mansion on New Year's Eve. This was the last day that the Mansion was open for the "Christmas" season and still had all of its seasonal decorations. Lots of people there that day (oh, and the sun was out).

The Pittock mansion was built by Pittock and his wife. They were a well to do couple (He owned the local newspaper) and were also big on outdoorsmanship and public works. He summited Mount Hood 4 times and they were both active in the Manzamas. (more history here)

And then he built this place.

It certainly is big. And made of stone queried from far away and hauled up that hill. It also has all of the days modern gadgets:

1) An Elevator (the first in the area).
2) In house communications (Originally bells, but switched over to phones).
3) Furnace for the house (lots of wood stacked in the wood storage area)
4) Full Surround Shower in the bathroom (very funky).

There were his and hers rooms upstairs. He had a really simple little bed (which they assured me was historically accurate) and a huge bathroom with Bath and Shower and Foot-tub and just everything!! The Shower was like a Framework that you stepped into the middle of and then water shot out of spouts all around you. It also had a pretty fancy control for adjusting the temperature of the water.

The other bedrooms in the house were actually pretty small.

Downstairs was a library and parlour and dining room and breakfast nook. I was sort of thinking there would be a ballroom or something like that but the place really wasn't big enough for that. In fact. The REALLY BIG thing about this house is the central stair case. It is a double set of winding and flowing stairs. From the front door, the big stairs go down (to a big room. Perhaps for parties, not big enough for dancing though) and then to either side they wind up to the bedrooms upstairs. This stairway takes up the entire front of the building. A HUGE amount of space dedicated to the stairs and the impression of grandeur. I would have rather of had bigger bedrooms and perhaps an archery range.

The big front yard is actually out the back of the mansion. That is also the most interesting side of the outside of the house to view (and where all of the main room windows face). People arriving by car would first encounter the gate house (where the chauffeur and his family lived) and then sweep around the front for a grand view of the city and the mansion before arriving at the covered carport. Not sure how you got in the formal front door that leads to the magnificent stairway.

The back yard?

Probably had a different view back then.

 

At Christmas time the rooms are each decorated with a different Portland Theme. The library was the animals and plants of the area. The kitchen was the Dragon Boats. The dinette was Powell's Book Store; The sitting room was Mount Hood. And so forth. It was very nice and well worth the trip for the interesting Portland History that was on display.

On our way home, we saw this guy trotting down the street. Mr. Coyote

Pittock Mansion parking lot is also trailhead parking for more adventures along the WildWood trail. Let me just put a link here to the next section.