Terwilliger-Marquam Loop Hike

Downtown highrises from the Terwilliger Trail (bobcat)

Snow on the Terwilliger Trail, Terwilliger Boulevard (bobcat)

View to Larch Mountain from Eagle Point (bobcat)

Cascade Oregon grape (Berberis nervosa), Marquam Trail (bobcat)

Leafy woods on the lower section of the Marquam Trail (bobcat)

The loop using Terwilliger Parkway and the Marquam Trail (not a GPS track) (bobcat) Courtesy: MapBuilder Topo

Start point: Marquam Trailhead
End point: Marquam Hill Water Tank
Hike type: Loop
Distance: 4.6 miles
Elevation gain: 690 feet
High point: 795 feet
Difficulty: Easy
Seasons: All year
Family Friendly: Yes, for older kids
Backpackable: No
Crowded: Yes

The first part of this loop takes you down the Terwilliger Parkway, a historic route now over 100 years old and part of Portland 40-mile Loop trail system. The parkway is named after one of Portland’s earliest settlers and business leaders, James Terwilliger, who purchased 640 acres of land here in 1850. It is the only completed project of four Portland parkway systems proposed by John and Frederick Olmsted in their 1903 report to the Portland Park Board. While traffic along Terwilliger can be quite busy, the passage is also leafy and, at breaks in the trees, offers views across the Willamette River to Mount Hood and Mount Saint Helens. (When Terwilliger Parkway was dedicated in 1912, it offered views along its entire 3 ¼ mile length; now a 100 years of growth obscures much of the eastern skyline.) When you reach Marquam Nature Park, you’ll be following the Sunnyside and Marquam Trails back through native mixed forest to Terwilliger Boulevard.

From the parking pullout, you’ll see the Marquam Trailhead across Terwilliger Parkway: this is where you’ll come out at the end of this loop. Walk down Terwilliger on the Terwilliger Trail, and cross a creek at a bend in the road known as “Anton’s Horseshoe”: the mixed forest below you is the Terwilliger Wildland, purchased by Metro, and you’ll notice some sizable Douglas-firs among the hemlocks, cedars, and big-leaf maples. Past the creek, steps lead down to a trail that connects to a neighborhood on Hamilton Street. (If you want to go down this creek, don't take the steep steps, but keep on the sidewalk another 75 to where a new [2022] graveled trail departs to the right.) The trail (and road) curves up and you’ll pass two exercise stations on the right: these have seen better days. Cross Hamilton Street at a public restroom building and picnic table, and walk above a playground to get a view to Mount Hood. Pass under a large oak tree, and look back along the Willamette River to the Sellwood Bridge. On the other side of Terwilliger, choice hillside homes spill down the slope. Cross Hamilton Terrace, and immediately reach Lowell Lane.

For a detour, go right here and then left past a small and unobtrusive public parking area for two cars. Keeping right leads to private residences, so make a left past a bollard, and follow a stone-lined incised driveway, rebuilt in 2017-18, to the Eagle Point Overlook, which looks east through the trees across the Boring volcano landscape of east Portland to Larch Mountain in the Gorge, Mount Saint Helens, and Mount Hood. (You’ll get a better view if you retreat up the slope under a copse of Douglas-fir, but views are still limited.) This property was once a private homestead (now removed) that was dedicated by Portland Parks in 2014. A short loop trail leads around the point. Return to the Terwilliger Parkway at Lowell Lane.

From Lowell Lane, you’ll make a continuous descent along the winding Parkway. Pass under a tall cottonwood and the entrance to the Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Center. Cross Condor Lane opposite a flight of stairs that leads up to Building 16, one of only two original buildings on the Veterans Medical Center campus that remain from the 1920s. Now you’ll get a couple of views of east Portland and Mount Hood across the South Waterfront. Pass the entrance to Oregon Health Sciences University, and look up to see the upper terminal of Portland’s Aerial Tram. Keep heading down: you can now see Barbur Boulevard below through the canopy of maples and oaks. A trail leads down to the right to the old YMCA building, now being renovated (2017) by Under Armour. The road heads into Marquam Gulch above Duniway Park and passes the Duniway Lilac Garden.

You’ll come to a traffic light at the intersection of Terwilliger and Sam Jackson Park Road. Take the crosswalk across Terwilliger, and keep to the sidewalk on the left side of Sam Jackson Park Road. Cross the road (check carefully for traffic) opposite the two big water tanks at the Sam Jackson Pump Station, and hike up to the bend in the road. At the entrance to Marquam Nature Park, take the footpath up some steps that lead to the shelter and information kiosk which has brochures, maps, and human and natural history of the area. Take time here also to admire the stunning Marquam Mosaic, installed in the small amphitheater created by Portland artist Lynn Takata in 2013.

Hike up the main park trail, a rubbly old partially paved road track, and make a right onto the Sunnyside Trail. Enter the native forest of Douglas-fir, western hemlock, western red-cedar, big-leaf maple, and vine maple. The urban invasives here are primarily cherry-laurel, ivy, Armenian blackberry, English holly and herb-robert. The Sunnyside Trail heads up the north side of Marquam Gulch. A couple of larger bird species can sometimes be seen or heard here: the pileated woodpecker and the barred owl, which nests in the area. The trail passes in and out of a couple of small gullies and then rises to the junction with the Marquam Trail, where you go left (going right would take you up to Council Crest).

This trail makes a traverse with views down Marquam Gulch and then makes four sharp switchbacks down, with new split-rail borders, to the junction with the Shadyside Trail. Keep right, and traverse along an ivy-drenched slope. The trail descends gradually past numbered posts for the former nature trail and then rises into a gully and crosses a footbridge. Soon reach the junction with the Towhee Trail, and keep left to descend some steps to a junction with the Basalt Trail at a rocky road bed. Go right to head up above Marquam Creek, and switchback nine times to reach Marquam Hill Road.

Make a right to keep on the roadside path that leads up past the Marquam Hill Water Tank (Facility #2). Cross the road to the resumption of the Marquam Trail, and head down the slope under a canopy of maples. The trail winds down and switchbacks before reaching the Marquam-Flicker Trail Upper Junction. You’ll see the large new footbridge over the gully to your right and can decide if you want to take the Flicker Trail or the Marquam Trail at this point.

If you want to continue on the Marquam Trail, keep left and head down the gully to cross a footbridge, and then hike up and drop to cross a footbridge over a creek supporting a salmonberry thicket. Continue to traverse and reach the Marquam-Flicker Trail Lower Junction. Keep left, and cross another footbridge over a trickling creek where the Marquam Trail makes a 90-degree bend. Continue down the side of this gully through an understory of sword fern and vine maple to reach Terwilliger Parkway at the Marquam Trailhead.

Fees, Regulations, etc.

Dogs on leash
Park hours: 5:00 a.m. to midnight
Restrooms at Hamilton Street and Marquam Nature Park Shelter Trailhead

Guidebooks that cover this hike

Take a Walk: Portland by Brian Barker
Portland Step-by-Step by Joe Bianco
Nature Walks In and Around Portland by Karen & Terry Whitehill

Contributors

bobcat (creator)

Terwilliger-Marquam Loop Hike

Terwilliger-Marquam Loop Hike

From Oregon Hikers Field Guide

Contents

Hike Description

Fees, Regulations, etc.

Maps

Trip Reports

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Guidebooks that cover this hike

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