City: Portland, OR
Category: Parks & Recreation
77. Westmoreland Park
City: Portland, OR
Category: Parks & Recreation
Telephone: (503) 823-7529
Description: Expansive, 47-acre Westmoreland Park brings folks from all over town to play baseball—the fields are lighted, and on summer nights they seem to illuminate the whole neighborhood. But Westmoreland also has casting ponds, soccer fields, tennis courts, and a terrific playground to interest people. In addition, the duck ponds lure many kinds of waterfowl, and interesting things happen when the water-birds mingle with the toddlers.
78. Arbor Lodge Park
City: Portland, OR
Category: Parks & Recreation
Telephone: (503) 823-7529
Description: Portland has many little parks like Arbor Lodge. This small neighborhood park adjoins Chief Joseph School and offers some nice trees, softball and soccer fields, a tennis court and playground, restrooms, a wading pool, and horseshoe pit. On a sunny day this is a wonderful spot to bring a picnic basket and spread a blanket. You can enjoy a magazine while the kids romp on the playground.
79. Cathedral Park
City: Portland, OR
Category: Parks & Recreation
Telephone: (503) 823-7529
Description: This park—situated on the banks of the Willamette River and one of Portland’s most scenic spots—is named after the tall gothic arches that support the St. Johns Bridge, towering above the park and inspiring that sense of awe that you’re bound to have in a cathedral. The park, which has a stage, is home to popular summertime concerts; it also includes soccer fields, a boat ramp and docking facilities, and trails. Cathedral Park is often peaceful, belying its lively history—not only is it the site of the very first plat for the village of St. John’s, but it is also suspected to have been a favorite fishing site for the Native Americans who lived here before.
80. Columbia Park
City: Portland, OR
Category: Parks & Recreation
Telephone: (503) 823-7529
Description: Healthy competition is a good thing, and when the old city of Albina saw that Portland was developing Washington Park, they were not going to be outdone. They purchased 30 acres on Lombard Street in 1891. Soon after, however, Albina was annexed to Portland. But it took many years before Columbia Park, which was eventually patterned after a park in Berlin, became the handsome, wooded place it is today. In addition to the grounds, the park offers fields for soccer, baseball, and softball, lighted tennis courts, volleyball courts, and a swimming pool.
81. Grant Park
City: Portland, OR
Category: Parks & Recreation
Telephone: (503) 823-7529
Description: President Grant visited Portland three times, but this park, named in his honor, is now more famous for its Beverly Cleary Children’s Sculpture Garden, in which Ramona Quimby, Henry Huggins, and his pooch Ribsy, all born of Cleary’s lively imagination, are fixed in bronze. (A few blocks away is the actual Klikitat Street, where Ramona “lived,” and the neighborhood where author Cleary herself grew up, attending Grant High School in the 1930s.) The sculptures sit atop a fountain, and in the summer, children play there all day long. At Grant Park you’ll also find nice sports fields, tennis courts, and a swimming pool.
82. Kelley Point Park
City: Portland, OR
Category: Parks & Recreation
Telephone: (503) 823-7529
Description: This quiet and out-of-the-way 96-acre park is one of our favorite places in the entire Portland Metro area, offering a large sandy beach and views of the Willamette and Columbia Rivers as well as Mount Hood and Mount St. Helens. Picnic tables are scattered all over this park—some are even on the beach—and there is a wide variety of conifers and deciduous trees. The park is named for Oregon advocate Hall J. Kelley, who was a great friend to the state. He wanted to found a city at the convergence of the Willamette and the Columbia, but with 20/20 historical hindsight, it’s a good thing he was overruled. Still, the park named in his honor is a wonderful spot, and it provides the anchor for the 40 Mile Loop—a fine legacy, in any case.
City: Portland, OR
Category: Parks & Recreation
84. Wilshire Park
City: Portland, OR
Category: Parks & Recreation
Description: Acquired by the city of Portland in 1940, pretty Wilshire Park in the Beaumont-Wilshire neighborhood is popular with softball players and families. Besides the ball field, the 15-acre community park offers some very nice trees, group picnic facilities, a jogging track, a good playground, and ample tables for birthday parties.
85. Frenchman’S Bar County Park
City: Portland, OR
Category: Parks & Recreation
Description: This park offers a lot on its mile-long stretch of sandy beach along the eastern shore of the Columbia River. Activities you can enjoy here include bird-watching, sunbathing, fishing, boating, picnicking, and watching the huge container ships, tankers, and freighters that sail up the waters of the Pacific Northwest’s mightiest river. There are plenty of walking trails too, plus eight sand volleyball courts, a grassy amphitheater, and some playground equipment for the little ones. This spot also affords a terrific view of Mount Hood.
City: Portland, OR
Category: Parks & Recreation
87. Elk Rock Island
City: Portland, OR
Category: Parks & Recreation
Description: Elk Rock Island is actually part of the Portland Parks system; it’s one of the designated natural areas, given to the city as a preserve for natural beauty that would restore the spirits of the citizens. This big volcanic rock, perhaps the oldest in the Portland area, is an excellent spot for bird-watching and offers some of the most diverse terrain around. Prized spots include herons, hawks, kingfishers, and egrets. This park also includes a hiking trail.
City: Portland, OR
Category: Parks & Recreation
City: Portland, OR
Category: Parks & Recreation
90. Bald Peak State Park
City: Portland, OR
Category: Parks & Recreation
Address: 9 miles from Newberg along Bald Peak
Description: If you’re the kind of person who hasn’t lost interest in Sunday driving, you might like Bald Peak. A pretty state park near Hillsboro, but high above the Willamette Valley, Bald Peak is still close enough to town to be an alluring spot for a spontaneous picnic on a sunny afternoon (no water, though, so pack your own). Bald Peak offers lovely views of the valley and a number of Cascade peaks in Washington and Oregon, including Mt. Rainier if the visibility is good.