View source for Smith and Bybee Lakes Hike

[[Category:Northwest Oregon]]
[[Category:Portland Area]]
[[Category:Portland]]
[[Category:All Season Hikes]]
[[Category:Easy Hikes]]
[[Category:Urban Hikes]]
[[Category:Lake Hikes]]
[[Category:Wildlife Refuges]]
[[Category:Wildlife Viewing Hikes]]
[[Category:Universal Access Hikes]]
[[Category:Family Hikes]]
[[Category:Public Transit]]
[[Category:Hikes]]

[[Image:TKO put tools to trail here.png|400px|right]]
[[Image:SmithBybee1.jpg|thumb|400px|Pelicans on Bybee Lake in the summer ''(bobcat)'']]
[[Image:SmithBybee3.jpg|thumb|250px|Viewing platform at Smith Lake ''(bobcat)'']]
[[Image:SmithBybee2.jpg|thumb|250px|Leafy beggar ticks ''(Bidens frondosa)'', Smith Lake ''(bobcat)'']]
[[Image:SmithBybee4.jpg|thumb|250px|Common teasel ''(Dipsacus fullonum)'', Bybee Lake ''(bobcat)'']]
[[Image:SmithBybeeMap.png|thumb|400px|Trails at Smith and Bybee Lakes (not a GPS track) ''(bobcat)'' Courtesy: ''Google Maps'']]

{{Start point|Smith and Bybee Trailhead}} 
* End point: [[Bybee Lake]]
* Hike Type: Out and back
{{Distance|2.1 miles}}
{{Elevation gain|10 feet}}
* High Point: 25 feet
{{Difficulty|Easy}}
* Seasons: All
* Family Friendly: Yes
* Backpackable: No
* Crowded: Yes
* [http://www.accesstrails.org/overview/smith-bybee/index.html  Smith and Bybee Accessibility Information] (Access Recreation)

=== Hike Description ===
This 200-acre property, in the middle of the rather faceless port area, is the biggest wetland park in a U.S. city. Interestingly, the two lakes are maintained in different ways: [[Smith Lake]]’s water levels are more constant to accommodate fishing and canoeing, while [[Bybee Lake]] rises and falls naturally with the tides and the seasons and the help of a water control structure installed in the 2000s. Not surprisingly, the latter lake is where you are more likely to see large numbers of water birds.

Head back from the trailhead parking area on the roadside walk with cottonwoods on your left and ponderosa pine plantings across the road to your right. Just before the park entrance, find a paved path, the Interlakes Trail, which leads off into an Oregon ash/black cottonwood bottomland with a dense understory of snowberry and red osier dogwood. Note the 1996 flood level on a sign. At a junction, go right for a view of a slough which should exhibit basking turtles and gadwalls on a sunny day. 

Going left takes you on a loop toward [[Smith Lake]]. Stop at the gazebo for views of the larger lake’s expanse and note the beaver activity in the area. (Many trees here have been caged for protection from these large rodents.) Continue around to the main paved trail and go left. You get a view of [[Bybee Lake]], and the trail fetches up at a viewing gazebo. In summer, common egrets, white pelicans, great blue herons, pied-billed grebes, ducks, ospreys, and bald eagles will be prospecting these waters. It is one of Portland’s great avifauna convocations!

Past the gazebo, you can continue farther on a foot trail through the dense reed canarygrass with a few spurs approaching the lake via thickets of water smartweed.

=== Fees, Regulations, etc. ===
* No dogs or bicycles
* Open dawn to dusk

=== Maps ===
{{Hikemaps|latitude=45.61845|longitude=-122.73488}}
* [http://library.oregonmetro.gov/files//smith_bybee_wildlife_checklist_august_2011.pdf  Smith and Bybee Wetlands Natural Area (Metro)]
* [http://www.portlandoregon.gov/transportation/article/474019  North Portland Bike/Walk Map (Portland Bureau of Transportation)]

{{TripReports|{{PAGENAME}}}}
* [https://www.oregonhikers.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=8&t=24745  after-work city hike: Smith and Bybee]
* [http://www.portlandhikers.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=8&t=18448  A couple of urban hikes 3/18]
* [http://www.portlandhikers.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=8&t=2284&hilit=smith+and+bybee+lakes  1 Forest & 3 Lakes]

{{RelatedDiscussions|{{PAGENAME}}}}

=== Guidebooks that cover this hike ===
* ''Wild in the City: Exploring the Intertwine'' by Michael C. Houck and M.J. Cody (editors)
* ''Easy Portland Outdoors'' by Teresa Bergen
* ''Urban Trails: Portland'' by Eli Boschetto
* ''Take a Walk: Portland'' by Brian Barker
* ''Nature Walks In and Around Portland'' by Karen & Terry Whitehill
* ''Peaceful Places: Portland'' by Paul Gerald

=== More Links ===
* [http://www.portlandonline.com/parks/finder/index.cfm?PropertyID=672&action=ViewPark  Smith and Bybee Wetlands Natural Area (Portland Parks)]
* [http://www.oregonmetro.gov/index.cfm/go/by.web/id=153  Smith and Bybee Wetlands (Metro)]
* [http://audubonportland.org/local-birding/iba/iba-map/smithbybee  Smith and Bybee Wetlands Natural Area (Audubon Society of Portland)]
* [http://www.pdxfamilyadventures.com/2010/02/22/smith-bybee-wetlands  Smith and Bybee Wetlands (Portland Family Adventures)]
* [http://www.columbiariverimages.com/Regions/Places/smith_bybee_lakes.html  Smith and Bybee Lakes, Oregon (The Columbia River “A Photographic Journey”)]
* [http://aol.research.pdx.edu/?q=lake/344  Smith Lake (Atlas of Oregon Lakes)]
* [http://aol.research.pdx.edu/?q=lake/343  Bybee Lake (Atlas of Oregon Lakes)]


=== Contributors ===
* [[User:bobcat|bobcat]] (creator)