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Difference between revisions of "Balch Canyon Loop Hike"

From Oregon Hikers Field Guide

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{{Distance|2.1 miles}}
 
{{Distance|2.1 miles}}
 
{{Elevation gain|350 feet}}
 
{{Elevation gain|350 feet}}
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* High Point: 455 feet
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{{High point|455 feet}}
 
{{Difficulty|Easy}}
 
{{Difficulty|Easy}}
 
* Seasons: All year
 
* Seasons: All year

Revision as of 19:23, 2 December 2021

This page is marked as a Closed Hike. Some or all of this hike has been closed by a governing body and hikers may be liable for fines or even arrest. At least part of this route may be dangerous and hard to follow, or it may cross areas with sensitive plant life or wildlife habitat. Trailkeepers of Oregon does not endorse or recommend hiking this route. When restrictions are lifted, this notice will be removed.
Winter view of Balch Creek in Lower Macleay Park (bobcat)
Fairy bells (Disporum hookeri) on the Wildwood Trail (bobcat)
The Wildwood Trail above Balch Canyon, Forest Park (bobcat)
The Stone House in Balch Canyon, Lower Macleay Park (bobcat)
Waterfall on Balch Creek (bobcat)
Portland's tallest tree, Balch Canyon (bobcat)
The loop using the Wildwood and Lower Macleay Trails; street section in orange (bobcat) Courtesy: Portland Parks & Recreation
  • Start point: Aspen TrailheadRoad.JPG
  • End point: Stone House
  • Hike Type: Loop
  • Distance: 2.1 miles
  • Elevation gain: 350 feet
  • High point: 455 feet
  • Difficulty: Easy
  • Seasons: All year
  • Family Friendly: Yes
  • Backpackable: No
  • Crowded: Yes

Contents

Hike Description

NOTICE: The Lower Macleay Trail is closed through December 2021 as far as the junction with the Wildwood Trail during construction of a new debris rack on Balch Creek.

Donald Macleay, a well-known Portland merchant, donated the current area of Balch Canyon to the City of Portland in 1897 partly, it seems, because he was tired of paying taxes on it but also in commemoration of the 60th year of Queen Victoria’s reign (Macleay was a Scotsman). One condition of the donation was that trails be wide enough to accommodate wheelchairs (a section of trail starting from the Lower Macleay Park Trailhead is still wheelchair accessible). The original donation land claim for the area, however, was filed by Danford Balch, who settled here with his large family in 1850. Young Mortimer Stump, a hired hand staying on the property, began courting Balch’s oldest daughter, Anna, but Balch denied Mortimer’s request for her hand. The young couple eloped to Vancouver when Anna turned sixteen. A couple of weeks after the wedding, Balch greeted his son-in-law at the Stark Street Ferry with a double-barreled shotgun blast to the face, killing him instantly. Balch was put in jail, but he escaped and disappeared into the jungles of what is now Forest Park. After several months, he was located and rearrested. This time he was tried, convicted of murder, and hanged in front of several hundred fellow citizens, including a tearless Anna and members of the Stump family, on October 17th, 1859. He was the first person legally hanged in Oregon.

Before Bull Run began to supply most of Portland’s drinking water in 1895, Balch Creek was a major source for the city’s supply. The loop hike can begin at either the Aspen Trailhead or the Lower Macleay Park Trailhead and includes a traverse of the Wildwood Trail, the mysterious Stone House, Portland’s tallest tree, the massive debris rack where Balch Creek disappears into a sewer pipe, a crossing of the 1905 Balch Gulch Bridge (the oldest bridge in Oregon), and a 101-step staircase! In this description, the outing is described as beginning from the Aspen Trailhead, where a weathered sign offers distances to various points in Forest Park.

Hike up a gully from the screen of snowberry, switchback, and then traverse up under Douglas-firs and maples. You can hear the hum of industry from the former marshlands below. On a clear day, a window through the trees offers a sighting of Mount Saint Helens' truncated peak. After another switchback, you’ll come to the junction with the Wildwood Trail, where you should go left. Hemlocks and cedars join the conifer mix, and there’s a dense understory of sword fern and Oregon grape. The Wildwood tucks in and out of drainages, and then begins a gradual drop to the four-way Wildwood Trail-Holman Lane Junction. Grassy Holman Park is just below.

Keep straight at the junction, and follow the Wildwood as it traverses above Balch Canyon under a canopy of maples and a few tall Douglas-firs. Licorice fern and ivy drape the slope above. You’ll descend to another junction at the distinctive Stone House, a Depression era public restroom that was abandoned after suffering severe damage during the October 1962 Columbus Day Storm. You can inspect both levels of the Stone House and also admire the enormous Douglas-fir standing behind it next to the trail.

Make a sharp left turn from the Wildwood (this is Mile 5 ½ on that trail) and begin heading down Balch Creek on the Lower Macleay Trail. A split-rail fence separates you from the creek. Twenty-five yards beyond the end of the fence, a large stone by the side of the trail marks a Portland Heritage Tree. This imposing Douglas-fir is the tallest tree in the City of Portland at 243 feet in height with a girth of 18.3 feet.

Continue down the trail, listening for Pacific wrens twitting in the undergrowth and chipmunks darting off. Looking up to the right, you may see sections of Cornell Road overhanging the canyon. Before a sturdy new footbridge over the creek, steps lead to the bank, and a natural scene inscribed on a flat rock on the left invites you to sit. Once on the bridge, you can look down on a small waterfall pouring over layers of 16 million-year-old basalt. The trail passes another drop in the creek and then a stone-walled viewing area, the end of the paved ADA trail coming up from the Lower Macleay Park Trailhead. Pass over another new footbridge, and exit the canyon at the grassy expanses of Lower Macleay Park.

On your right, you’ll see a somewhat rickety walkway above wire nets designed to catch debris from the creek. In the same area at the beginning of the 20th century, there was a flume constructed by one Lafe Pence, who planned to use hydraulic hoses to sluice canyon soils down to the flatlands and fill the marshes and lakes so they could be built upon. Pence didn’t seek permission for his enterprise, so the project was halted and the damage somewhat limited. Pass a sign explaining Donald Macleay’s role in creating the park and then, below the walkway, you’ll see an enormous wooden debris rack into which Balch Creek disappears. Out of sight, the pretty creek you were admiring farther up the canyon gets transferred to a seven-foot in diameter sewer pipe and is unceremoniously deposited into the Willamette River. A small pollinator habitat garden blooms in summer above the debris rack.

Follow the paved trail past a modern sculpture, and pass under the Balch Gulch Bridge, a 1905 truss bridge that is now the oldest standing bridge in Oregon. Ahead of you is the parking circle and restroom building at the Lower Macleay Park Trailhead, but take the paved trail leading right up a series of metal steps. You’ll arrive at the east end of the Balch Gulch Bridge (a.k.a. the Thurman Street Bridge), which you can then cross on a sidewalk, getting views to the Willamette River. At the west end of the bridge, on the left side, is a memorial plaque to a 2014 restoration of the bridge. On the right side, at the corner of Thurman and 31st, is the Willamette Heights Drinking Fountain, erected in 1916. Continue walking up Thurman, crossing both 32nd and 34th Avenues (note the horse hitch rings embedded in the curb). You’ll pass a one-car garage with distinctive copper downspouts and then see a flight of stairs overhung by bamboo heading up to your left. Actually, there are 101 steps, but these will deliver you to Aspen Street. A hundred yards to your right is the Aspen Trailhead.


Fees, Regulations, etc.

  • Restrooms, picnic tables, interpretive signs at Lower Macleay Park
  • Dogs on leash

Maps

Trip Reports

Related Discussions / Q&A

Guidebooks that cover this hike

  • One City’s Wilderness: Portland’s Forest Park by Marcy Cottrell Houle
  • Oregon & Washington: 50 Hikes With Kids by Wendy Gorton
  • Urban Trails: Portland by Eli Boschetto
  • Easy Portland Outdoors by Teresa Bergen
  • Day Hiking: Columbia River Gorge by Craig Romano
  • 60 Hikes Within 60 Miles: Portland by Paul Gerald
  • Afoot & Afield: Portland/Vancouver by Douglas Lorain
  • 100 Hikes in Northwest Oregon & Southwest Washington by William L. Sullivan
  • Portland Hikes by Art Bernstein & Andrew Jackman
  • Peaceful Places: Portland by Paul Gerald
  • Nature Walks In and Around Portland by Karen & Terry Whitehill
  • Portland Step-by-Step by Joe Bianco
  • Canine Oregon by Lizann Dunegan

More Links


Contributors

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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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