Powell Butte Nature Park Feels Like an Escape From the City

The East Portland park is 611 acres of constantly changing terrain.

Powell Butte Nature Park - BOP BOP (Portlandparks.gov)
By Sophie Peel

Sprawling Powell Butte Nature Park (16160 SE Powell Blvd., portland.gov/parks/powell-butte-nature-park) in East Portland is 611 acres of constantly changing terrain. If you’re tired of the heavily wooded runs and hikes in Forest Park and Mount Tabor—beautiful, yes, but monotone—you may want to visit Powell Butte for a change of pace.

For half a mile, you can feel like you’re in an open clearing with few trees—save for a small orchard—and dusty ground underfoot. It’s the closest thing to Eastern Oregon you can find within Portland city limits. But as you drop down into the wooded area, it feels like Portland once again. And then, when you get dumped out onto the road from the acres of forest, you feel like you’re in the country.

The trails winding in and out of the forested area of Powell Butte are endless, so you can go for a short half-mile jaunt or a longer, 6-mile trip.

Another perk: Powell Butte is rarely busy so it’s not hard to feel like you’re farther out of the city than you really are—even though the top parking lot at the entrance of the park would suggest otherwise. (Pro tip: Park on one of the residential roads at the bottom of the park—then prepare to walk up the hill.)

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