The network

The trail guide

Every trail in the corridor we've measured — Forest Park and its fire lanes, plus the connected Hoyt Arboretum and Washington Park paths — each surveyed against City LIDAR. Field-guide write-ups are filling in trail by trail.

Trail Length Net relief Effort Uses

Lower Macleay Trail Forest Park's front door: an easy creekside walk up Balch Creek to the mossy Witch's Castle ruin. 0.87 mi 216 ft Moderate foot
Wildwood Trail The 30-mile spine of Forest Park — a foot-only ridge trail from the city's edge out to its wildest, quietest corner. 29.62 mi 647 ft Challenging foot
Leif Erikson Drive Forest Park's backbone — ~11 car-free miles of gentle gravel, the park's premier long run and gravel ride. 11.23 mi 394 ft Easy foot · bike · horse
Redwood Trail Hoyt A short climb to three redwoods that could never meet in the wild — a walk up through deep time. 0.40 mi 129 ft Moderate foot
Overlook Trail Hoyt The park's one big mountain view almost anyone can reach — paved, gentle, and worth a clear day. 0.61 mi 107 ft Steep foot
Wild Cherry Trail The classic first singletrack: a rooty downhill that teaches you the whole shape of the park. 0.84 mi 472 ft Steep foot
Dogwood Trail The quiet half of the Wild Cherry loop — a boggy descent with a good early-spring wildflower show. 1.00 mi 410 ft Challenging foot
Upper Macleay Trail The quiet way up Pittock Hill: old firs and near-solitude, forty feet off the crowded Wildwood. 0.80 mi 161 ft Moderate foot
Maple Trail A rolling, foot-only ramble to the park's biggest old-growth firs — quieter than the map admits. 3.42 mi 393 ft Moderate foot
Ridge Trail Looks like another steep north-end connector — then hands you the park's best view of the St. Johns Bridge. 1.46 mi 855 ft Strenuous foot
Fire Lane 1 The ugliest line on the map, the finest view in the park: four volcanoes over an oil-tank farm. 2.30 mi 943 ft Steep foot · bike · horse
Fire Lane 5 Forest Park's only bike-legal singletrack — the dirt that taught a lot of Portland riders to ride. 1.13 mi 453 ft Challenging foot · bike (only singletrack)
Fire Lane 15 Far-northwest solitude and a steep drop to Kielhorn Meadow, where the park's big animals still range. 1.36 mi 424 ft Challenging foot · bike · horse
Saltzman Road The market gardeners' old road, now the cross-park gravel spine of the Leif–Saltzman–Skyline loop. 3.06 mi 810 ft Easy foot · bike · horse
Bristlecone Pine Trail Hoyt An accessible paved loop where trees are sorted by continent — cross the world between benches. 0.71 mi 77 ft Moderate foot
Nature Trail The park's oldest interpretive trail — its signs long gone — a quiet creek-gully climb past a silted firefighting dam. 0.90 mi 358 ft Moderate foot
Vietnam Veterans Memorial Wash. Park Six black-granite walls carry the names of Oregon's Vietnam dead, along a quiet paved spiral in Hoyt Arboretum. 0.36 mi 50 ft Moderate foot
Japanese Garden Trail Wash. Park Not a free back door to the Japanese Garden — a short, steep link that stitches the Washington Park loop. 0.30 mi 174 ft Steep foot
Spruce Trail Hoyt A ten-minute connector through spruces from around the world — the green middle of Hoyt's 1-Hour Loop. 0.31 mi 79 ft Moderate foot
Tolinda Trail A quiet north-end ridge trail named for Camp Tolinda — a girls' camp the forest reclaimed. 0.73 mi 421 ft Steep foot
Alder Trail The calm one of the south-end trio — a quiet alder-grove climb from Leif Erikson up to the Wildwood. 0.88 mi 250 ft Moderate foot
Aspen Trail A steep little on-ramp to the Wildwood — a calf-burning shortcut for hill repeats, not for scenery. 0.22 mi 148 ft Steep foot
Beech Trail Hoyt Save it for January, when the leafless weeping beeches turn to sculpture above the Winter Garden. 0.33 mi 161 ft Steep foot
Birch Trail A quiet dirt on-ramp — gentle switchbacks down NW 53rd to the Wildwood, the easy start to a south-central loop. 0.22 mi 139 ft Steep foot
BPA Road The far-north powerline road: open, undulating, big views — then the bottom drops out. 2.03 mi 1,007 ft Steep foot · bike · horse
Cannon Trail A short, steep rung from Leif Erikson up to the Wildwood — named for a man, not a cannon. 0.32 mi 154 ft Strenuous foot
Chestnut Trail A short creek-gully drop to a thriving American chestnut — a survivor of the blight that erased its kind back east. 0.50 mi 239 ft Challenging foot
Cleator Trail A steep quarter-mile rung carrying one of the biggest names in the park's history. 0.21 mi 207 ft Strenuous foot
Creek Trail Hoyt The hushed, cedar-shaded creek bottom of the arboretum — the quietest few minutes at Hoyt, best in rain. 0.14 mi 52 ft Moderate foot
Cumberland Trail The smooth, gentle way up Pittock Hill — big firs and a bench that concedes the trees win. 0.40 mi 94 ft Moderate foot
Fir Trail Hoyt Hoyt's flattest, friendliest loop — a salal tunnel and a small door that opens toward the redwoods. 0.58 mi 70 ft Moderate foot
Fire Lane 10 The far north's one fire lane you can actually get onto — a rideable spine to old-growth giants and a hidden pond. 1.39 mi 476 ft Challenging foot · bike · horse
Fire Lane 12 A long, quiet descent through the wild far north — spring trilliums and the 'Hole in the Park' story. 1.50 mi 645 ft Challenging foot · bike · horse
Fire Lane 13 A dead-end spur to the best picnic-table view in the park — three volcanoes over Sauvie Island. 0.63 mi 412 ft Steep foot
Fire Lane 13A A spur off a spur that dead-ends at the powerlines — for completists only; everyone else keeps straight. 0.19 mi 124 ft Steep foot
Fire Lane 2 The honest way up to Skyline: a short, steep climb through the berry tangle they call Berry Row. 1.02 mi 559 ft Challenging foot
Fire Lane 3 A rideable drop off Skyline across the burn that gave Forest Park its whole fire-lane system. 0.88 mi 481 ft Challenging foot · bike
Fire Lane 4 A short, mean, dead-even drop off the ridge — with one clean window east to Mount Adams. 0.55 mi 425 ft Strenuous foot
Fire Lane 7 The one flat fire lane — the Avenue of Trees, and one of the park's better spring wildflower walks. 0.65 mi 98 ft Easy foot · horse
Fire Lane 7A The steep gas-line drop toward the river — a working corridor with a quiet Doane Creek overlook. 0.24 mi 218 ft Strenuous foot
Fire Lane 8 The park's shortest fire lane: an unmarked, muddy bailout to Germantown Road, and nothing more. 0.18 mi 100 ft Challenging foot
Fire Lane 9 The park's steepest, muddiest plunge — dropping straight out of the forest to a street in Linnton. 0.52 mi 394 ft Strenuous foot
Hardesty Trail The quiet way around the Springville crowds — a steep little ridge guarding the Big Stump. 0.52 mi 370 ft Strenuous foot
Hawthorn Trail Hoyt A plain arboretum link that briefly lights up — cherry blossom in spring, smoke-tree color in fall. 0.26 mi 103 ft Challenging foot
Holly Loop Hoyt A tiny loop through a living holly experiment — and red winter berries when the forest goes bare. 0.14 mi 38 ft Steep foot
Holman Lane The park's one uphill-only trail — a dirt escalator to the ridge, with a sunny meadow at the foot. 0.86 mi 441 ft Steep foot · bike (uphill only)
Keil Trail Short rung linking Wildwood to Dogwood near NW 53rd — named for the forester who built the fire lanes. 0.16 mi 82 ft Challenging foot
Keyser Trail An unsigned old roadbed that sidesteps Fire Lane 10's steepest pitch — gentler on the knees, quietly historic. 0.25 mi 82 ft Moderate foot
Kielhorn Meadow Trail A short, level spur off Fire Lane 15 into Kielhorn Meadow — a rare far-north clearing where big wildlife ranges. 0.18 mi 39 ft Easy foot
Koenig Trail Steep thimbleberry connector off the Wildwood — named for Fran Koenig, who created the park's blue diamonds. 0.26 mi 212 ft Strenuous foot
Linnton Trail The Highway 30 way into the park's remote far north — a steep half-mile climb up Linnton Canyon. 0.53 mi 396 ft Strenuous foot
Macleay Trail (connector) A neighborhood back door to the Wildwood — short, peaceful, in the forest before your coffee's cold. 0.28 mi 50 ft Moderate foot
Magnolia Trail Hoyt A steep switchback climb through a magnolia collection built to bloom in slow motion, March to June. 0.29 mi 155 ft Steep foot
Maple Trail (Hoyt) Hoyt The park's most concentrated fall color — ninety kinds of maple down one south-facing hillside. 0.55 mi 84 ft Easy foot
Morak Trail One of the park's shortest named trails — a 266-foot switchback shortcut from the Wildwood up to Fire Lane 1. 0.05 mi 53 ft Strenuous foot
Newton Road The far-north road that becomes a trail — a solitude route through the park's least-visited elk country. 2.26 mi 938 ft Challenging foot · bike · horse
Oak Trail Hoyt The arboretum's everyday door toward the gardens — a downhill tour of an oak island in a fir forest. 0.26 mi 88 ft Challenging foot
Queen's Walk Wash. Park A short brick path plaqued with every Rose Festival queen since 1907 — a century of Portland pageantry. 0.09 mi 8 ft Easy foot
Springville Road A gravel road that grinds uphill at one steady angle the whole way — the park's honest training climb. 1.10 mi 634 ft Steep foot · bike · horse*
Trillium Trail One of the park's steepest quarter-miles — a lung-buster to the Wildwood, wearing a soft wildflower name. 0.23 mi 216 ft Strenuous foot
Tunnel Trail A short, steep on-ramp up a Pittock Creek ravine — bedrock-slick when wet, easy to walk past. 0.17 mi 131 ft Strenuous foot
Walnut Trail Hoyt A fifth-mile grass seam between better trails — with a flare of sugar-maple orange in fall. 0.20 mi 48 ft Easy foot
Water Tank Trail A little utility spur most people skip — worth it in summer for the daisy meadow at the bottom. 0.25 mi 151 ft Steep foot
Waterline Trail A steep, muddy ridge climb that trades forest canopy for something rare here — open sky. 0.69 mi 413 ft Strenuous foot
White Pine Trail Hoyt The arboretum's wild western edge — a quiet forest walk to the oldest Douglas fir in the park. 0.86 mi 237 ft Steep foot
Wiregate Trail Quiet foot link up the Doane Creek drainage from Leif Erikson to Wildwood — named for an old wire gate. 0.30 mi 214 ft Steep foot