Mount Scott Creek Hike
From Oregon Hikers Field Guide
- Start point: Southern Lites Park Trailhead
- End Point: Scott Creek Lane Trailhead
- Trail Log:
- Hike Type: Loop
- Distance: 2.3 miles
- Elevation gain: 160 feet
- High Point: 440 feet
- Difficulty: Easy
- Seasons: All year
- Family Friendly: Yes
- Backpackable: No
- Crowded: No
Contents |
Description
Mount Scott Creek begins on the east side of Mount Scott and then flows between that Boring volcano and Mount Talbert to meet Kellogg Creek, which runs into the Willamette. This neighborhood trail runs mostly along the creek near its source in a stretch of native coniferous forest dominated by some sizeable Douglas-firs and western red-cedars.
Look back from the entrance to Southern Lites Park to get a view of Mount Talbert. Southern Lites is a developed park of lawns, a basketball hoop, play area, and a single picnic table. The creek below is choked with blackberry and shaded by thick stands of red alder. Walk the paved trail through the park and continue on a gravel park with natural forest of big-leaf maple, Douglas-fir, cedar, and alder on the right sloping steeply down to Mount Scott Creek. Blackberry and Scots broom on the left form a barrier below neighborhoods rising up the slopes of the volcano. Reach a large footbridge that extends over the creek to 122nd Avenue, and continue to your left up the creek. A boardwalk snakes below a slope: it is very slippery when wet so keep to the chicken wire track in the middle. Pass a massive multi-trunked maple and note a lovely cedar grove down on the creek. Signs warn you to stay on the trail. The wide gravel path reaches a cul-de-sac at the end of Adoline Avenue.
Walk up Adoline, swinging right then left, and pick up the trail where it descends on a paved path past a MuttMitt dispenser. Wind past back yards in cedar, Douglas-fir, and maple forest. At a junction, a duff trail leads down to the creek where it spills between mossy boulders below a rotting cedar trunk. Continue on this spur to where it rejoins the main trail where it gradually ascends above a couple of braids in the stream. Head right through young alders to reach the junction of SE 129th Avenue and Scott Creek Lane.
You can return the way you came or loop back through the neighborhoods. For the latter, walk up Scott Creek Lane to Cedar Way, Go left and walk down Cedar Way to Adoline Avenue. At the cul-de-sac on Adoline, resume the Mount Scott Creek Trail and take it back to Southern Lites Park.
To continue walking in the area, you can take a pathway heading north off of Cedar Way just before its junction with Adoline. This connects with William Otty Road. Go right on Otty, then left on Kimberley Court to find a trailhead for the Mount Scott Nature Trail, described as part of the Mount Scott Loop Hike.
Fees, Regulations, etc.
- Dogs on leash
Maps
- Maps: Hike Finder
- Mt. Scott Nature Trail (Happy Valley Hikers)
- Happy Valley Parks and Trails Map (City of Happy Valley)
Trip Reports
- Search Trip Reports for Mount Scott Creek Hike
Related Discussions / Q&A
- Search Trail Q&A for Mount Scott Creek Hike
Guidebooks that cover this hike
- none
More Links
- Happy Valley Hikers
- City Trail Map (City of Happy Valley)
- Southern Lites Park (North Clackamas Parks & Recreation District)
- “Got trails? The Happy Valley Hikers do” (OregonLive)
Page Contributors
- bobcat (creator)