Tunnel Trail
A short, steep on-ramp up a Pittock Creek ravine — bedrock-slick when wet, easy to walk past.
On this trailThe Walk
The Walk
From the Cornell pullout the trail tips straight up, so there’s no warm-up to speak of. It follows Pittock Creek into a narrow, shaded ravine that closes in around you fast — the kind of steep-walled little draw where the air cools and the road noise thins within a few strides. The tread is the story here: dirt worn down to bare bedrock in long stretches, which is firm and sure-footed when dry and turns to a skating rink after rain. A trekking pole isn’t affectation on this one; it’s the difference between a climb and a controlled slide.
Listen for the creek before you see it Pittock Creek is small, but in a ravine this tight the water carries — a steady undertone that gets louder as the walls draw in. This is a headwater feeder for Balch Creek, the canyon system just downhill, so what you’re hearing is the top of that watershed doing its quiet work. Stop where the trail dips closest to the water and let the sound take over from the road.
Runner’s note Short and stiff — treat it as a hill-repeat rung, not a route. It’s the fastest way to punch up from Cornell into the Cumberland–Wildwood trails, but the bedrock is unforgiving when wet, so save it for dry days or slow your descent to a walk. Most runners take it up and loop back down on something less committing.
At the top the trail delivers you onto the Cumberland Trail — smooth, wide, and civilized after the scramble you just did — which carries on up to the Wildwood and the Pittock Hill trails beyond. That handoff is the whole point of the Tunnel Trail: a few honest minutes of effort to reach a part of the park worth spending real time in.
Before you go
The two things that trip people up here are both at the bottom. First, the trailhead: the pullout is about 1.1 miles up Cornell from NW 25th, just past the first tunnel, and the marker is easy to miss at road speed — slow down as you clear the portal and watch the shoulder. Second, the footing: this is a fair-weather climb. After rain the bedrock is slick enough to make the descent the crux, so go in the drier months, go in daylight while the ravine still has light, and bring a pole. Do that, and it’s the quickest atmospheric way into the south end of the park.
Getting there
StartA roadside pullout on NW Cornell Rd to EndTops out at the Cumberland Trail
- Start
- A roadside pullout on NW Cornell Rd, about 1.1 mi up from NW 25th Ave and just past the first road tunnel — the trail is named for that tunnel, and the marker is genuinely hard to spot, so slow down as you clear the portal
- Orientation
- South end of the park in the Hillside neighborhood, on the NW Cornell Rd side below the Macleay–Pittock–Audubon cluster — the road-tunnel stretch of Cornell, not the Lower Macleay canyon most first-timers know
- Parking
- No lot — just the roadside pullout on NW Cornell Rd with room for a car or two, and it's easy to blow past. There's no signed trailhead lot on this side; park clear of the travel lane and don't block the shoulder
- Ends at
- Tops out at the Cumberland Trail, which hands you up into the Wildwood network toward Pittock Hill. Either loop onward on those trails or turn around and pick your way back down the bedrock the way you came
- Transit
- No convenient direct bus. TriMet 18 winds through the Hillside neighborhood above; most people reach this cluster on foot from the Macleay–Pittock side rather than off Cornell
- Accessibility
- Not an accessible route — a short, steep, natural-surface climb worn to slick bedrock, with no paved segment and no facilities at either end
- Dogs
- leashed
- Best
- late spring through fall, in daylight — the bedrock tread turns slippery after rain, and the ravine runs dim under the canopy