Easy (Tualatin Hills) 4.5-mile loop 100 feet elevation gain Open all year Use: hikers, bicycles Easy
(Cooper Mountain)
2.2-mile loop 250 feet elevation gain Left: Boardwalk at Tualatin Hills. Below: View from Cooper Mountain. The two largest preserves of the Tualatin Hills park district are oases of wildness in Beaverton’s suburbia. They’re close enough you might visit both in a day. Start with the 222-acre Tualatin Hills Nature Park—once a Catholic school’s private preserve known as St. Mary’s Woods. Here you can step off a MAX train and stroll for two hours past lilypad ponds, cedar groves, and marsh birds without once seeing a city street. Then drive 5 miles south to Cooper Mountain, where a new nature park with far-ranging views has restored a native oak savannah with spring wildflowers. Dogs are not allowed in either park and bicycles are limited to the few paved paths. To find Tualatin Hills Nature Park ... |