What’s to Love: Despite being sandwiched-in between some nasty industrial businesses, Smith & Bybee Wetlands Natural Area is an excellent family-biking destination with several options for family fun. You may just need to hold your breath every now and then.
Pier Park is yet another excellent North Portland Park featuring an challenging 18-hold disc golf course, an outdoor skate park, and an outdoor pool! This destination park has a little bit of everything for the whole family. If you have yet to visit, I suggest heading up to St. Johns before the rainy season hits in North Portland.
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Ibach Park is located 15-20 miles south of Portland off I-5. It has an award winning playground with some interesting playground gear. The park is super clean and well kept.
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Columbia Park is located in the Portsmouth neighborhood in North Portland. It has one of the new water/spay features for kids to play in. It also has a nice indoor pool.
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What’s to Love: Surrounded by large-scale condo/housing developments that all look the same, Happy Valley City Park offers a bit of a reprieve from its chaotic surroundings. The park has some well kept athletic fields, green spaces, picnic areas/shelters, playgrounds, and even offers recycling receptacles! Sounds like a pretty decent park, but is it worth the 8-10 mile drive from Portland?
What’s to Love: I hope people who live near the pool don’t hate me for writing this article. Why would they hate me? It’s simple – they don’t want the best outdoor pool in Portland any more crowded than it already is! Actually, to think the Sellwood Pool is some top secret location known only to insiders is a bit naive. Everything you’ve heard (if it’s tremendously positive) is most likely true. We all know
Sellwood Park is gorgeous, and the pool is the perfect extension for summer fun.
Well, the votes are in from our readers concerning your favorite Portland park. It’s not a surprise to tell you that
Laurelhurst and
Sellwood both top the list. Yes, these are beautiful destination parks, and we practically live at Sellwood park during the summer, especially with the incredible outdoor pool. Aesthetically, these parks are both hard to beat. However, I’d like to share a few of my personal picks in 10 categories that may not be on your parental radar.
**Attn Locals: Please share your comments at the end of the article. Then, write me ( use the comment form) and tell me you want a free pass to Pump-it-Up or Pump-it-Up Junior. I’m giving them away to the first 10 people who both comment and respond. Please include your address, and I’ll mail them out right away. Thanks!
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What’s to Love: A stunning park in north Portland, Peninsula Park offers the whole family something to do with both indoor and outdoor activities. The rose garden is certainly on-par with the rose garden at
Washington Park. This is my favorite park in north Portland, and it’s definitely worth a drive or bike ride to get there.
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What’s to Love: I moved to Portland from one of the best mountain biking cities in the country – Durango, Colorado. I used to ride endless single-track right from my doorstep, and I lived just blocks from downtown. I miss the Durango sunshine, but I miss the epic mountain bike rides the most. Within the city limits of Portland, Powell Butte is the best cure for “single track fever.”
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What’s to Love: I visited this park twice with my son in June, 2008, and I know we’ll be back again soon. I was looking for a park with plenty of open green-space to launch our model rocket (see video below). I noticed that Memorial Park looked like the biggest park in the Wilsonville area, so we headed over to check it out. I don’t think I’ve ever been so shocked by the quality and design of a park. I highly recommend visiting this park!
What’s to Love: Brooklyn park is a (relatively) small neighborhood park in inner-southeast Portland. Mostly, this is your basic Portland Park with somewhat outdated play structures, slides, water feature, picnic benches, swings, merry-go-round, etc. However, there are a couple of interesting points to make about Brooklyn Park that might make you want to go out of your way for a visit.
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What’s to Love: Cedar Hills Park is a quaint little park right off the very busy “Cedar Hills Boulevard” close to Beaverton. While the actual playground equipment is somewhat sparse, the park does have a few nice features that make it worth a visit.
What’s to Love: When we moved to the Pacific Northwest in 1999, we couldn’t find affordable rent in Portland, so we ended-up in Vancouver. After hanging out in Portland, we realized that it was a much better match for us. Thus, we left Vancouver after about 3-4 months with a pretty unfavorable impression of the area. Indeed, Vancouver (the ‘couv’) takes quite a bit of punishment from Portlanders. However, in terms of outdoor recreation (specifically bicycling on paved-paths), Vancouver has many opportunities that mirror Portland’s excellent reputation as a “biking town.”
What’s to Love: What’s to love? How about my first “highlight video!” Wooohooo! I can’t believe I actually got this up and running finally. You’ll see most of my new posts with a short video clip. Anyway…Commonwealth Lake Park…hmmmm…weird place, I must admit. However, I don’t mean that in a negative way. As far as parks go, let’s just say it’s somewhat unique. Basically, it’s a man-made lake surrounded by an upper-middle-class neighborhood.
What’s to Love: George Rogers Park is located on the south side of downtown Lake Oswego. If you live in Portland, it’s worth the drive. This is definitely a “destination park” featuring hiking and biking trails, an easy-to-find
Letterbox, an interesting historical past, a decent beach, tennis courts, big baseball field, and some of the nicest picnic benches and grills you’ll find in a park setting.
What’s to Love: Another “pesticide-free” park in Portland! While that is an attractive feature at Sewallcrest Park, for my son it’s all about the “corkscrew slide.” Sometimes, he calls it the “curly slide.” Whatever your kids may call it, they will certainly be amazed by this old relic. When my son first saw this slide, he just looked at me and said, “Whoa!”
What’s to Love: Mt. Tabor Park is another showpiece destination within Portland city limits. This park has it all – including stellar hikes, mountain biking, road biking, closed-roads on certain days/times, beautiful views, and at times…serenity. We have been going to Mt. Tabor park for years, and we still seem to find new nooks and crannies to explore.
What’s to Love: Wilshire Park is a quaint (NE) neighborhood park. It has a trail that rings the outside where people like to jog and walk their dogs. It’s also one of the friendlier dog-parks in Portland. We used to live in the Beaumont Village area of Portland and this was our local park. It’s probably not worth a trip from outer-southeast Portland, but if you’re in the northeast, bring the family by for some fun.
What’s to Love: This is arguably the best outdoor play structure in Portland. Although a bit dated in some spots, this incredible maze of ramps, slides, swings, seated rockers, etc…will keep you and your kids endlessly entertained. We’ve been taking my son to this spot for about 4 years now, and he still loves it when we’re there, and hates it when we leave.
What’s to Love: As you’ll see, I have plenty of caveats for this park. However, there is a BIG plus to this park – the grounds are totally
pesticide-free! This is pretty impressive, because I could only find two other parks in all of “environmentally friendly” Portland that can carry that same title.
