Clackamas: Parks, Rivers, and Oregon Trail History

Clackamas County encompasses urban, suburban, rural, and wilderness communities. Experiences range from a paved route through varied landscapes to river activities, historical exhibits, and quiet nature themes. For vacation planning, it’s worth first asking which side of the region you’d like to get to know. The system operated by Clackamas County Parks includes 15 parks and four undeveloped properties, with nearly 1,000 acres of public land in total.

Parks, Trails, and Water Access

The parks system as a whole includes 242 campsites, 11 picnic shelters, and seven water access points. These figures describe the system overall, not individual parks. Barton Park has 112 campsites, 103 of which have water and electrical hookups. So if you’re interested in camping options in the parks, you’ll also find specific information there about hookups; these details should not be assumed to apply to other facilities.

One notable route is the 21-mile paved Springwater Corridor, which runs from downtown Portland to Boring. Wetlands, buttes, cultivated fields, and pastureland lie along the way. The route thus combines a clear description of the trail with changing landscapes. If you’d rather make a shorter nature setting the focus of your stay, you could explore the distinctive features of individual parks instead of making the long route the centerpiece of your plans.

Wilhoit Springs Park continues to offer public access to mineral springs and the surrounding old-growth forest. Molalla River State Park has green spaces for picnics and games, and a boat ramp provides access to the river. Canby Ferry is a quarter mile downstream from Molalla River State Park and is one of three ferries still in operation on the Willamette River. If you’re planning a crossing, check the schedule before your visit.

Activities on the Clackamas River

Rafting, canoeing, and kayaking are all possible on the Clackamas River at Milo McIver State Park. That gives you three different ways to enjoy the water. If you’d rather focus on nature, McIver Park’s Clackamas Fish Hatchery offers self-guided tours about the life cycle of Chinook salmon and steelhead. The Riverbend Day-use Area at Milo McIver State Park also has a 27-hole disc golf course. These examples offer different focuses: river activities, an informative tour, or a round of disc golf.

History and Nature Up Close

The End of the Oregon Trail Interpretive Center explores history through interpretive signs, interactive exhibits, and the chance to try historical games from past eras. The signs tell the story of the Oregon Trail, the Tumwater Chinook and Clackamas Indians, and the settlement of the Willamette Valley. A former section of the Barlow Road on the Oregon Trail is nearby at Barlow Wayside Park, which also has a self-guided Natural History Tour Guide. At these places, the history of the trail and natural history each take center stage as distinct topics.

Other park features are primarily about the landscape. Little Joe Creek flows through Barlow Wayside Park; Coho salmon and steelhead spawn there every fall and winter. Madrone Wall is defined by a 120-foot-high basalt wall and offers wide views of the nearby Clackamas River. Eagle Fern Park is surrounded by old-growth forest. If you’re interested in the landscape and nature, you can compare these features with the historical themes or river activities, without reducing every place to a single focus.

Golf also has its own scenic setting in the region: Stone Creek Golf Club covers 120 acres and includes old Douglas firs, lakes, four wetlands, and 43 bunkers. When looking for a vacation rental in Clackamas, you can use your preferred type of experience to guide your choice of where to stay: trails and scenery, river activities, history, forests, or golf, for example. The county’s different facets offer more specific pointers than a general impression of the region.

Explore More Destinations

Explore more destinations: Canby, Lake Oswego, Welches, Sandy, Clackamas, Milwaukie, Wilsonville, Oregon City, Gladstone, Government Camp, Molalla, West Linn, Oak Grove, Rhododendron.

For the broader travel overview: Oregon.