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Swan Island-Mocks Crest Loop Hike

From Oregon Hikers Field Guide

Swan Island Beach, McCarthy Promenade (bobcat)
View to Basin Avenue from Waud Bluff (bobcat)
Strawberry madrone (Arbutus unedo), McCarthy Promenade (bobcat)
Adidas Campus, Mocks Crest (bobcat)
Columbia Cottage, Columbia Park (bobcat)
The loop around Mocks Bottom and Mocks Crest (bobcat) Courtesy: Google Maps
  • Start point: Waud Bluff TrailheadRoad.JPG
  • End point: Big Pipe Portal
  • Hike type: Loop
  • Distance: 7.5 miles
  • Elevation gain: 240 feet
  • High point: 195 feet
  • Difficulty: Moderate
  • Seasons: All year
  • Family Friendly: No
  • Backpackable: No
  • Crowded: No

Contents

Hike Description

A "hike" in an industrial area is not everyone's cup of tea, but this is a worthwhile excursion on one of those days when you can't get out of town. Do it on the weekend, when the commercial activity at Mocks Bottom and Swan Island is negligible: you'll be spending a lot of time on sidewalks, but the loop described here connects various slivers of green space and beach front to take you back up to the view-filled stroll along Willamette Boulevard at the rim of Mocks Crest.

Note that the pockets of natural area that this hike explores continue to be the haunts of some of Portland’s significant transient population so, especially in the summer, you may feel more comfortable doing this hike with a companion.

Walk back towards the bluff and find the footpath behind the crash barrier on Willamette Boulevard. This takes you past the sign for Harvard Street and leads to a flight of steps that accesses the Waud Bluff Trail, constructed in 2013. From the top here, get views over industrial Mocks Bottom and Swan Island. The wide paved trail leads down the bluff through a leafy slope forest of white oak and Pacific madrone; then it turns to cross the Union Pacific railroad tracks on a pedestrian/bike bridge. Descend the stairs, and take the paved path to the turnaround at the end of Basin Avenue.

Keep to the sidewalk here as you walk past the fenced Coast Guard/ Marine Corps Reserve station. Note some of the old guns and engineering equipment parked for display on the lawns. Basin Avenue is lined with red oaks, which offer a brilliant color display in the fall. Then you'll continue past the large UPS facility and cross Ensign Street. Keeping on Basin, reach the UPS Customer Center and a couple of large truck lots. Pass the junction with Lavern Street, and walk on a grass verge for a block. Keep on grass as you round a bend and reach the parking area for the Swan Island boat ramp.

Cross the parking area to a paved trail that leads over a blocked channel of the Willamette River, now the Swan Island Basin: this harbor to your right was part of the original north channel but it presented problems for shipping, so in 1927 Swan Island was connected to the mainland and the channel to the south was dredged for commercial shipping. Interpretive signs with a view over the harbor explain the commercial and natural history of the area. Swan Island, to your left, was the site of Portland’s first airport, the Swan Island Municipal Airport, and then became a Kaiser shipyard during World War II. After the war, Swan Island became the Port of Portland’s center of operations and also hosts many other industrial facilities. The short trail continues past cottonwoods and Scots broom but then peters out, so you need to return to Basin Avenue.

Keep walking on Basin to cross Emerson Street and then bear right on Anchor Street. Cross Lagoon Avenue and then Channel Avenue at the Daimler headquarters. Go right and walk the sidewalk along Channel Avenue past the large Daimler parking lots.

Reach the McCarthy Park Trailhead at an unsigned access corridor, and head towards the Willamette River on a walkway. Past a fish advisory sign, a ramp leads down to a log-strewn beach. Take the walkway as it heads above the Willamette past plantings of strawberry madrone and laurel. There are picnic tables below the Daimler building and views across the river to the Tualatin Hills and the Northwest Industrial Area. Past the Daimler offices, another ramp leads down to a cottonwood-backed beach and views up the river to the Fremont Bridge. Come to a viewpoint atop a brick foundation, and then enter a small plaza shaded by hawthorn trees. Steps from here head down to the beach, known as the Swan Island Beach or Lindbergh’s Beach (Charles Lindbergh flew into Swan Island to dedicate the new airport in 1927). Pass a junction on a wide, paved path above the beach, which is sometimes screened from the trail by madrones and cottonwoods. Then you'll arrive at another junction which is arched by the Big Pipe Portal sculpture which symbolizes Portland’s costliest infrastructure project at $1.4 billion. The Big Pipe runs under the Willamette and was designed to carry larger volumes of sewerage in order to prevent the frequent overflows into the river. The sculpture is the same diameter as the pipe itself. To your left, you will now see the Swan Island Pump Station complex. A gravel trail leads down to the beach. The riverside promenade stops at a fence and sewer outfall pipe. Beyond is the Union Pacific Railroad’s Albina Yard.

Return to the Big Pipe Portal, and take the trail to a street and then go left. Walk down Port Center Way past a McDonald’s to Going Street. Cross Going, and make a right on the sidewalk which takes you up the viaduct over the railroad lines. A staircase leads left up to Greeley Avenue in North Portland's Overlook neighborhood. Go left here, and enter the Madrona Park Natural Area. The slope down to the left is forested with big-leaf maples, Pacific madrone, and horse chestnut trees. A rough trail leads down to the left to reach an overgrown road bed: you can follow this a while until you reach a steep slope, so it’s better to return to Greeley. Keep going uphill to pass the Adidas Campus, cross Emerson Street, and then turn left on Willamette Boulevard.

This final stretch of the loop runs along the bluff above Mocks Bottom. The sidewalk becomes a footpath, and you reach the Mocks Crest Viewpoint at a grassy point. A dead tree reaches out starkly here. You can cut across the little bowl below (known unofficially as the Dog Bowl) via one of the use trails: the bowl is overgrown with a weedy sea of non-native fennel. Rejoin Willamette Boulevard under a Douglas-fir, and cross it to walk the sidewalk on the other side. After the junction with Rosa Parks Way, follow the grassy footpath above the bluff again. Oaks, maples, and madrones forest the slope below. Cross Willamette Boulevard at Wabash Avenue to take up the sidewalk there. A line of sequoias marches along the top of the bluff, but the public is discouraged from walking there. Reach Columbia Annex Park. Here you can make a detour up Woolsey Street to Lombard and visit the historic Columbia Cottage under its towering Douglas-firs. Then return to Willamette Boulevard and round the bend to reach your parked car.


Fees, Regulations, etc.

  • Pets on leash

Maps

Trip Reports

Related Discussions / Q&A

Guidebooks that cover this hike

  • Discovering Portland Parks by Owen Wozniak (McCarthy Park)
  • Walk There! 50 Treks In and Around Portland and Vancouver edited by Laura O. Foster (Swan Island Beach)
  • Portland Step-by-Step by Joe Bianco (Willamette Boulevard section)
  • PDXccentric by Scott Cook and Aimee Wade (Swan island)
  • Biking Portland by Owen Wozniak

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Oregon Hikers Field Guide is built as a collaborative effort by its user community. While we make every effort to fact-check, information found here should be considered anecdotal. You should cross-check against other references before planning a hike. Trail routing and conditions are subject to change. Please contact us if you notice errors on this page.

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