Hike 23 - Eagle-Fern Park

Distance: 1.7 mile loop

Elevation Gain: 400 feet

Trailhead elevation: 525 feet

Trail high point: 818 feet

Other seasons: all year

Pass: Pay $8 at the park entrance booth

On the traditional lands of: the Clackamas and Molalla peoples

Directions:

• Starting at Interstate 205, exit 13, drive 14.3 miles towards Estacada on OR 224.

• Approximately 1 mile past the junction with OR 211, turn left at a sign for Eagle Fern Park onto Wildcat Mountain Dr.

• Keep straight at a junction in just 0.2 mile. Continue another 1.8 miles to a junction with SE Eagle-Fern Road.

• Turn right and drive 2.3 miles to Eagle-Fern Park on your right.

• Turn right into the park and pay the $8 park access fee as soon as you park.

• Drivetime from Portland: 50 minutes

Hike: Having traveled all over the United States, I can honestly say that Oregon has some of the nation’s best parks. Take for example Eagle-Fern Park, located near Estacada, about 40 minutes southeast of Portland. Here you’ll find a scenic wooden bridge over a rushing creek that deserves to be called a river, and a easy loop trail that leads you through one of the finest groves of ancient forest in the Willamette Valley. For more ancient forest and river views, you can follow a longer loop up and down the slopes above Eagle Creek. Eagle-Fern Park can be quite crowded in the summer, so plan a visit here in the offseason when you only feel like being outside for a couple hours. It’s worth it.

From the parking lot, locate the signboard that leads you to the wooden bridge over Eagle Creek. This scenic bridge is a wonderful place to stop and watch the rushing waters of the creek pass underneath you! On the far side of the bridge, you will reach a junction at the start of the loop. Turn right here to begin the loop. Signboards mark this all-access trail through the impressive forest here. A pamphlet is also available, with marked stops for even more information. After meandering your way through this gorgeous spot, reach a junction with the upper loop at 0.4 mile from the trailhead. Turn right here.

You will climb gradually above the forest floor here on a wide but occasionally muddy trail. Before long the trail switchbacks uphill along huge ancient Douglas firs and cedars to the trail’s high point of just over 800 feet. On the rare sunny days in winter, the slopes here will often still be draped in fog, with sunbeams piercing the fog in a most scenic manner. This is when I love to visit Eagle-Fern Park. As you work your way across the forest at the upper end of the canyon, you will have the occasional view down through the trees and ferns to Eagle Creek; the name of the park is quite fitting.

At 1.2 miles into your loop, the trail begins to abruptly descend towards Eagle Creek. Every time I visit I wish this hike were longer, but the trail up here follows the general contours of the park boundary; this is as good as it’s going to get in this small park. Follow the trail downhill until you reach the banks of Eagle Creek. From here the trail bends its way around sword ferns and the occasional boulder to a reunion with the all-access trail on which you started. Turn right and follow the trail a short distance to the wooden bridge over Eagle Creek and the conclusion of this loop.

Continuing your hike:

If you’re still looking for a little exercise and a little more time in the woods, you can follow Loop D through the woods on the other side of Eagle-Fern Park. Return to the junction with southeast Kitzmiller Road and turn right. You’ll find the trailhead for Loop D less than 0.2 mile from the junction. The trail network in Eagle-Fern Park is still under construction, so perhaps there will be more trails here in the future.