Magnolia Trail

The Walk

Most people meet this trail from below, where the Beech Trail comes in; keep left there and the path tips uphill. It climbs the full slope — roughly 155 feet — in three switchbacks over barely a third of a mile, which is the whole trick of it: short on the map, and steeper than short trails usually are. It’s natural soil the entire way, soft and shaded, and it holds water after rain, so expect slick footing in the wet months.

The lower reaches are where the magnolias cluster, one labeled species giving way to the next as you rise. This is the payoff, and it’s worth slowing for. Then, up on the higher switchbacks, the collection thins and a different set of trees takes over — sassafras and sweetgum, which do their own quieter work later in the year. The sweetgum in particular is one of the arboretum’s better fall-color trees, so the same climb that’s a flower show in April becomes a small burn of color in October.

Forest Skill — why a garden blooms in waves A single magnolia flowers for a week or two and then it’s done. Plant one species and you buy yourself one good weekend a year. But magnolias are an enormous, ancient genus, and their species and cultivars bloom on different schedules — some in the first warm days of March, some holding off until June. Gather enough of them on one slope and you’ve built a relay: as one tree drops its petals, the next is opening. That’s the difference between a collection and a planting. The bloom you catch on any given visit is really a slice of a three-month-long chain.

Kid Quest In spring, the goal is one of each color — find a white magnolia, a pink one, and one that’s somewhere between (the saucer magnolias fade through both). Bonus: spot a flower that opened before the tree grew any leaves at all, which is how most magnolias do it. Then count the switchbacks on the way up. There are three, and your legs will agree.

The one genuine hazard here isn’t the grade — it’s getting turned around. This corner of the arboretum is a dense knot of parallel trails that all look alike under the trees, and the Magnolia Trail weaves through the middle of it. Even short walks go sideways here. Carry the map.

Before you go

The season is the whole point. March through June is the marquee, with the bloom moving up and down the collection the entire time; if you can only come once, aim for April, when the most trees are out at once. Come in fall and the sweetgums up top are the reason. Come in, say, August, and you’ll get a hot, steep, confusing little climb and wonder what the fuss was about — so time it, or wait.

Foot traffic only: bikes aren’t permitted on the arboretum’s trails, and dogs are welcome on leash. Wet-season mud is the standard Portland tax, and the soil switchbacks hold it; stay on the tread through the soft patches rather than skirting them, which only widens the trail into the slope.

Find a magnolia in full flower and stand under it for a minute before you climb on. These are among the oldest flowering plants on Earth — they were blooming before there were bees to pollinate them, back when beetles did the job. You are looking at a very old idea, doing it again this spring.