HI-Portland,
NORTHWEST

Portland's most centrally located hostel

  What's so great about
  Portland?

  Day 1, 2 & 3 in Portland

  Attractions

  Events/Festivals

  Live Music

  Pubs/Bars

  Restaurants

  Discounts

  Movies

  Shopping

  Museums

  Green Spaces

  Neighborhoods

  Hostel Activities

  Day Trips

Forest Park

At nearly 5,000 acres is the nation’s largest natural forested park within city limits. The forest wilderness includes more than 50 miles of trails and 30 miles of gated roadways for hiking and biking along NW Portland’s Tualatin Mountains. Check out their website for trail maps!
 

These blocks were some of the original park properties in the city. Captain John Couch dedicated the blocks to the City in 1869. City plats show the park blocks continuing to Front Street, but Tanner Creek and poor drainage were obstacles to development and land north of Glisan remained vacant. The original design concept for the North Park Blocks was for a continuation of the South Park Blocks promenade. However, the linking was impeded early on by Benjamin Stark's reluctance to give the city the two blocks between Ankeny and Stark. The six blocks between Salmon and Stark donated by Daniel Lownsdale became part of a legal battle with his second wife's heirs. The court ruled in their favor and the property was eventually sold and developed. On the remaining blocks, trees were planted in rows like those in the South Park Blocks, using Big leaf maples and Black locusts with American elms at the street edge.

In 1852 Daniel H. Lownsdale designated eleven narrow blocks of his plat at the western edge of town for public park space. Between 1852-75 the park was an unimproved roadway on the outskirts of the city center; the southern portion up to Jefferson was part of the Great Plank Road. In 1877 the first landscaping of these blocks occurred when the city council authorized florist and landscape designer Louis G. Pfunder to plant 104 Lombardy poplars and elms between Salmon and Hall Streets. Over the years, much has been added to the park, but there seems to be a consensus that the blocks should remain "a cathedral of trees with a simple floor of grass." 

Explore a world of trees. This arboretum displays more than 900 species of trees and shrubs. Ten miles of gentle trails wind through this living exhibit past hundreds of plants from distant places.

One of the largest and oldest rose test gardens in the country, with over 500 varieties and 8,000 rose bushes. Take a leisurely stroll, have a picnic, and bring your camera to capture the spectacular view of the "City of Roses" and Mount Hood!

The Japanese Garden is tucked into a cusp in Portland's West Hills, situated at about five hundred feet above sea level. It is a haven of tranquil beauty that has been proclaimed one of the most authentic Japanese gardens outside of Japan. Portland's internationally recognized Japanese Garden beckons visitors from home and abroad to enter its unique confines. Little more than forty years old, it represents a melding of Japanese traditional garden forms with American hurry. When measured against its inspirational precursors in Japan, many of which are hundreds of years old, the Portland garden has come to a maturity with blinding swiftness. What the visitor sees today is the result of the efforts by hundreds of dedicated persons who have given years of time and care and foresight to match the vision that a group of Portland civic and political leaders had as the 1950s turned into the 1960s.

Portland's Mt. Tabor was named after another Mt. Tabor, which sits six miles east of Nazareth in Israel. Our Mt. Tabor makes Portland one of only two cities in the continental U.S. to have an extinct volcano within its boundaries; the other city is Bend, Oregon. The volcanic features of Mt. Tabor became known in 1912, years after Mt. Tabor became a public park. The volcanic cinders discovered in the park were later utilized in surfacing Mt. Tabor Park's roads. Mt. Tabor now contains a permanent exhibit of the volcanic cone from which the cinders were obtained.

  Nestled against Forest Park, five minutes from downtown Portland, is the 143-acre, free-to-the-public Nature Sanctuary. Our wildlife sanctuary is a showcase for native flora and fauna.  It has over four miles of forested hiking trails for you to enjoy year 'round (map).  Trails are open dawn to dusk every day. 

Couch Park

Only 1 block from the hostel, this urban park has basketball courts, open spaces for playing Frisbee or enjoying a nice picnic lunch.  Couch park also has a playground and some nice pieces of public art.  Free community supported concerts every Tuesday in August!!

 

Crystal Springs Rhododendron Garden

The more than 2,500 rhododendrons, azaleas, and companion plants in the Garden have all been donated by volunteers and interested individuals, or purchased with specially donated funds. Beginning in early spring and continuing into summer, they provide a magnificent display of color, giving visitors the opportunity to view many varieties rarely seen in the Pacific Northwest. During the fall, many companion trees add dramatic coloring. Spring-fed Crystal Springs Lake surrounds much of the garden, attracting many species of birds and waterfowl.  The garden is located on SE 28 Avenue, one block north of Woodstock, between Eastmoreland Golf Course and Reed College. Or take TriMet bus #19 Woodstock. This bus takes alternating routes as it goes through Eastmoreland; ask the driver for the stop nearest the Garden.