Portland, Oregon

Forest Park: lose the city, ten minutes from downtown.

It feels enormous, and unlike anywhere else. We'll help you find your way in — one good walk at a time, whether it's your first visit or your fiftieth.

Explore the trails

5,200acres: protected urban forest
80+miles: trails, fire lanes & forest roads
66routes mapped: measured & cross-checked
1948dedicated: one of the U.S.'s great urban forests

Plan your adventure

A field-smart friend's shortlist, tuned to who you're with.

Forest Park with Kids Why the park is a genuinely good time with kids, where to start, and the honest stuff nobody prints on the trailhead sign.
Forest Park for Naturalists & Birders How to read the park as habitat and season instead of a checklist — where the birds, the big trees, and the spring bloom actually are, and which trails put you inside each.
Forest Park for Trail Runners The runnable spine, the fire-lane climbs, and the loops that stitch them together — plus the honest stuff about mud, mileposts, and where the water isn't.
Forest Park by Bike Where you can actually ride in Forest Park, the one loop to start with, and the honest stuff about mud, gates, and sharing the road.
Forest Park with Limited Mobility Most of the park is steep, primitive dirt — but a few routes are genuinely welcoming. Here's the honest map: what's paved, what's graded, and where parking and restrooms are.

At home

Forest Park Wall Map

Forest Park’s connected trail network in one wall-scale view, with route distances, elevation, trailheads, parking, access, and amenities for choosing the next walk.

Wall-scale: 42 × 17 in
Fine-art stock: 250 gsm cotton rag
Frame your way: Unframed · rolled

Explore the wall map →

The Story of Forest Park

Then read the park itself — why this forest exists, how it was saved, and what lives here.

What This Place Is How to understand Forest Park — a genuine wilderness folded into a working city — before you pick a trail.
Why the Forest Is Here The deep-time reason a forest survives on the edge of a city — a story of rock, rain, and ground too treacherous to build on.
How It Was Saved How a forest this close to downtown got saved — the forty-five-year argument, and the stubborn people who kept choosing it over the money.
What Lives Here How to read Forest Park as a living system — layers, water, and a wildlife corridor — instead of a list of species to memorize.
When to Come The forest keeps two seasons for your feet and four for the rest of you — how to read the year and match the month to the right trail.