Great blue heron sunbathing, Hedges Creek Wetland, Tualatin (bobcat)

Tualatin River on a foggy morning, Ki-A-Kuts Bridge (bobcat)

Mastodon skeleton, Tualatin Public Library (bobcat)

Saber-tooth salmon viewpoint, Tualatin River Greenway (bobcat)

Sharing ice-cream (statue), Tualatin Commons (bobcat)

View over Hedges Creek Wetland, Tualatin (bobcat)

The walk around Tualatin shown in red (bobcat)

• Start point: Durham City Park Trailhead
• End points: Nyberg Woods and Hedges Creek Wetlands
• Hike type: Loop and in and out
• Distance: 6.7 miles
• Elevation gain: 55 feet
• High point: 140 feet
• Difficulty: Easy
• Seasons: All year
• Family Friendly: Yes
• Backpackable: No
• Crowded: Yes
• Tualatin River Greenway Accessibility Information (Access Recreation)

Description

A network of trails links parks and greenspaces along the Tualatin River in Tualatin. This hike introduces you to the newest section of the expanding Tualatin River Greenway, but also takes in wetlands and natural areas in the center of the city. Some of the route follows city streets and the route of the Tualatin Artwalk. You also get to wonder at the bones of Tualatin's own mastodon at the Tualatin Public Library, where you will also see the fossil remains of other Pleistocene megafauna discovered in the area. The walk loops around the Hedges Creek Wetlands, a haven for herons, egrets, and various species of ducks. On a clear day, you will be treated to a view of Mount Hood.

This hike could also be started at the Cook Park Trailhead or the Tualatin Library Trailhead; it could also be combined with the Browns Ferry Hike and the Cook and Durham City Parks Hike if you want to complete the trails along the Tualatin River in this area.

From the Durham City Park Trailhead, take the paved trail across an open grassy area, and pass a covered picnic area. Cross Fanno Creek on a footbridge under an ash, oak, and maple canopy. Cross another lawn, part of the park’s off-leash area, and come to a junction at a rail trestle that carries the WES (Westside Express Service) commuter trains in addition to regular freight trains. Go left and keep left at the next two junctions to cross the Ki-a-Kuts Bridge, opened in 2007, over the Tualatin River: the bridge is named after a spokesman for the Atfalati (Tualatin) Kalapuyans. Look down to your left to see the confluence of Fanno Creek with the Tualatin. At the far end of the bridge, you’ll enter Tualatin Community Park. Leave the paved path to take the chip trail leading off to the left.

This trail meanders through the woodland above the Tualatin River under big-leaf maples, Oregon ash, Douglas-firs, and grand firs. Eventually, come to a covered picnic area and a railroad trestle. To your right is a pump station constructed in 2009 to look like an old train station. Pass under the trestle and walk by a boat ramp and then a children’s playground. On the other side of a covered picnic shelter are interpretive signs telling about recent floods in Tualatin. A large, colorful map at the playground gives details about Tualatin’s Artwalk route. Keep left, with the Van Raden Community Center on your right. Then take the path leading between buildings to a parking area below the Juanita Pohl Center. Drop down through the parking area and cross Hedges Creek: a sign here tells about the discovery of a mastodon skeleton in a nearby wetland. Go left on the path, which leads out to Boones Ferry Road. Make a left here on the sidewalk and walk 200 yards to Martinazzi Avenue. Cross Martinazzi to the Tualatin Public Library. If you want to see the mastodon skeleton and other paleontological artifacts, walk down Martinazzi and enter the library. On your left is the circulation desk, behind which is the skeleton of the female mastodon, perhaps 20 years old when she died; then continue into the library, passing the reading area on your right. Here, you’ll find displays of local mammoths and mastodons, remains of Bison antiquus, and the sacrum of a giant ground sloth.

When you leave the library, go left to reach Barngrover Way. Across the street, you’ll see the arch that advertises the Tualatin River Greenway. This section of the Greenway, inaugurated in April 2016, takes you below the Nyberg Rivers Shopping Center. You’ll read interpretive signs about the Missoula Floods and follow a geological timeline. Mastodon, ground sloth, and human footprints cross the paved trail and a blue ribbon of flood water snakes through the center of the path. At a junction, you can go right to the Nyberg Rivers Shopping Center and find a statue of the Tualatin mastodon and a small boy looking up to the beast in awe (the scene complements the children’s story ‘’I Wonder’’ by Ramona Merrill). The mastodon itself was unearthed by John “Bobby” George, a PSU geology student, who from his childhood had remembered a mastodon tooth being used as a doorstop. As part of a thesis project, in 1962 he returned to the wetland where the tooth had been found and dug up as much of the mastodon as he could find. If you want more Pleistocene edification go left and enter Cabela’s. Look for the taxidermy display and also replicas of Ice Age megafauna fossils.

Back on the Greenway, you’ll reach a viewpoint on your left with a display about megafauna and a depiction of a six-foot sabertooth salmon. Continue following the timeline on the main trail and come to a map displaying the extent of the Missoula Floods. Lining the path to the Yvonne Addington Overlook are various erratics, which became stranded in the area when their “rafts”, really large chunks of ice, melted . You’ll also begin to see records of Mount Saint Helens eruptions: most with a VEI (Volcanic Explosivity Index) of 5, meaning they released at least one cubic kilometer of material. Pass under the I-5 freeway and enter the grand fir/Douglas-fir forest at Nyberg Woods. A railed boardwalk leads right to the Nyberg Woods Shopping Center: a viewing platform here looks over wetlands towards the freeway. You can continue on the main trail behind the Forest Rim Apartments to reach Browns Ferry Park, where there's a walking loop (see the Browns Ferry Hike). This section of the greenway was opened in Summer 2023.

Otherwise, walk back to the Tualatin Public Library and cross the front of the building. Turn left to head south on Martinazzi Avenue about half a block to Seneca Street; then go right until you reach the Tualatin Commons, with its large shallow pool (Tualatin Lake) and European-looking condos. Walk around the pool, going clockwise. Interpretive signs inform that this used to be the site of a pet food plant, and there are various artworks to admire. Just southeast of the Commons, across Nyberg Road, is a large Fred Meyer whose parking lot now conceals the discovery site of the Tualatin mastodon. Exit the Commons on its west side via Nyberg Road, and cross Boones Ferry Road and the WES train tracks to enter a large shopping center. A footbridge crosses Hedges Creek at the back of the shopping center. There's a viewing blind back here from which you can spot herons, egrets, coots, and other waterfowl. Continue around through the shopping center, exiting it to walk with the extensive Hedges Creek Wetlands on your right until you reach S.W. 90th Avenue. (If you like, you can cross 90th to walk around the Kaiser Permanente Art and Sculpture Garden with its small sculptures of animals native to the marshes.)

Continue north up 90th, getting great views of the Hedges Creek Wetlands and Mount Hood rising behind the shopping center. Continue to Sweek Drive, and turn right here. Across from an apartment complex, a surfaced trail leads into the Sweek Pond Natural Area. Pass through a pocket of Douglas-firs, and then reach the first viewing area at the ash-shaded pond. The trail reaches the paved connector to the shopping center. Make a left back to Sweek Drive and the Heritage Center, which displays a glacial erratic outside. Go right on Sweek and cross Tualatin Road into Tualatin Community Park.

Cross under the WES railroad tracks and, with a railroad trestle on your right, turn left at a parking area and walk past the pumphouse to the Ki-a-Kuts Bridge. You can explore Cook Park from here or keep right to return to the Durham City Park Trailhead.

Fees, Regulations, etc.

• Dogs on leash
• Parks and greenway open dawn to dusk
• Bring binoculars for birdwatching

Maps

• Maps: Hike Finder
• Tualatin River Greenway Bicycle and Pedestrian Shared Use Path (City of Tualatin)
• Tualatin Park System Map (City of Tualatin)

Trip Reports

• Search Trip Reports for Tualatin River Greenway Loop Hike

Related Discussions / Q&A

• Search Trail Q&A for Tualatin River Greenway Loop Hike

Guidebooks that cover this hike

• Wild in the City: Exploring the Intertwine by Michael C. Houck & M.J. Cody
• Exploring the Tualatin River Basin by Tualatin Riverkeepers (partial)
• Discovering Portland Parks by Owen Wozniak (partial)

More Links

• Tualatin Community Park (City of Tualatin)
• A Walk in the Park (City of Durham)
• Artwalk (City of Tualatin)
• Tualatin’s Mastodon (City of Tualatin)
• Tualatin River Greenway Trail Project (City of Tualatin)
• “Inch by glacial inch, Tualatin River Greenway became reality” (Oregon Live)
• Tualatin River Greenway Trail Project (The Tualatin Valley)
• “Cabela’s grand opening: 9 things you’ll only find at the Tualatin store (Oregon Live)
• “Unveiling History” (The Times)
• “9-foot mastodon sculpture at Cabela’s unveiled at Nyberg Rivers grand opening” (Oregon Live)
• The Tualatin Ice Age Trails (Willamette Valley Pleistocene Project)
• Tualatin Commons (City of Tualatin)
• Tualatin Lake at the Commons (City of Tualatin)
• Hedges Creek Wetlands (The Intertwine)
• Our History (The Wetlands Conservancy)
• Sweek Pond Natural Area (City of Tualatin)

Page Contributors

• bobcat (creator)