Tualatin Hills Parks

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 …