Ewing Young Loop Hike
From Oregon Hikers Field Guide
- Start point: Ewing Young Park Trailhead
- End Point: Ewing Young Lower Footbridge
- Hike Type: Loop
- Distance: 1.4 miles
- Elevation gain: 110 feet
- High Point: 165 feet
- Difficulty: Easy
- Seasons: All year
- Family Friendly: Yes
- Backpackable: No
- Crowded: On summer weekends
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Description
Ewing Young was one of Oregon’s earliest pioneers and, posthumously, an instigator in the creation of a provisional government for the Oregon Territory. In his lifetime, Young crossed paths with such luminaries of the American West as Kit Carson, Peter Skene Ogden, David Jackson, Hall Jackson Kelley, John McLoughlin, Jason Lee, Nathaniel Wyeth, and John Sutter. Born in Tennessee, in 1822 Young traveled to the State of Nuevo México in newly independent Mexico and set up a fur-trapping enterprise. In 1830, Young led the first expedition of American trappers from Santa Fe to the Pacific Coast. He trapped in the Sacramento valley for the rest of the year and returned to Santa Fe a wealthy man. Arriving in San Diego in 1834, Young met Hall J. Kelley (See the Kelley Point Loop Hike), a promoter of American settlement of the Oregon Country, who convinced him to go north on an expedition to the Willamette Valley. The outcome was that Ewing Young claimed for himself about 50 square miles on Chehalem Creek, where he built a sawmill and grist mill. He was the first European to settle on the west side of the Willamette. After an unsuccessful attempt to commercially distill whiskey, an effort which met with extreme disapproval from Dr. John McLoughlin of the Hudson’s Bay Company at Fort Vancouver, Young traveled by ship to purchase cattle in California. He and several other pioneers returned along the Siskiyou Trail with 630 head, and settlers now had the seed for their own herds having previously had to “rent” cattle from the Hudson’s Bay Company. Young himself became the largest rancher in Oregon and its wealthiest inhabitant. However, he died intestate in 1841 at the age of 42. Avoiding the temptation to arbitrarily divide up his considerable estate, local settlers met at Champoeg (see the Champoeg Loop Hike) to create a court and judge with probate powers. This was the first official office in the Oregon Territory. A provisional government was subsequently formed in 1843.
Ewing Young Park straddles Chehalem Creek in Newberg and commemorates this early pioneer. A forested rim provides walking trails, including a stretch along the creek. Other facilities include an off-leash area for dogs, a skate park, a BMX track, and a disc golf course. Future plans include a trail which will cross Young’s original acreage to reach the Willamette River.
Pass between the house and the off-leash area to descend a grassy slope past a disc golf tee. Keep away from the disc golf fairway, and walk along the sward, keeping youself about 15 yards away from the back yards to your right. You’ll soon recognize that you’re on an old road track that passes a stately grand fir and then begins to drop past a blackberry/teasel thicket. Enter the streamside wood above Chehalem Creek, and come to a junction. Go right a short distance to get good views down to the creek. This slope is overrun with blackberries, so return to the junction. Keep going above the creek under cottonwoods and a large oak dripping with moss and licorice fern. Pass Tee #5, and drop to the creek, here shaded by a large Douglas-fir and a row of cedars. Look for deer tracks in the mud. At a junction, descend to creek level (this section could be flooded in winter), but soon rejoin the main trail as it rises gradually to a junction. Keep right here to follow a wide track through the maples. To your right, the creek is dammed behind a low weir. The trail crosses the substantial new footbridge over a gully, and switchbacks up to the corner of a filbert orchard.
Make a left here and then a right at a junction to hike up through ivy-festooned woods with an understory of sword fern, trailing blackberry, and bracken. Reach a fence that surrounds a large swale near the just-completed (2018) Newberg-Dundee Bypass. The trail curves left and drops to a junction. Switchback right into the deep gully of the Chehalem Creek tributary under alders, cottonwoods, and maples. Cross a bridge, and hike up under ivy-dripping trees. Switchback, and then go right through a grove of cottonwoods. Cross a small creek, and keep right to reach the BMX track and skate park near the parking area.
Fees, Regulations, etc.
- Dogs on leash; off-leash area available
- Park open 7:00 a.m. to dusk
- Covered picnic area, port-a-potty
- Disc golf course, BMX track, skate park
Maps
Trip Reports
- Search Trip Reports for Ewing Young Loop Hike
Related Discussions / Q&A
- Search Trail Q&A for Ewing Young Loop Hike
Guidebooks that cover this hike
- none
More Links
- Ewing Young Park (Chehalem Park & Recreation District)
- Ewing Young Park Trails (Chehalem Park & Recreation District)
- Ewing Young (Wikipedia)
- Ewing Young Route, 1834-1837 (Oregon Historic Trails Fund)
- The Ewing Young Trail (Benton County Historical Society)
- The Willamette Cattle Company: The story of Ewing Young (Tualatin Life)
Page Contributors
- bobcat (creator)