Find the top rated birding trails in Salem, whether you're looking for an easy short birding trail or a long birding trail, you'll find what you're looking for. Click on a birding trail below to find trail descriptions, trail maps, photos, and reviews.
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We started in Parking lot#3. Glad to have the traillink map-it was fun cruising around all the loops - so much better than a straight path. Every section was different. Beautiful scenery - saw a big eagle nest with Mama in it/a huge lilypad pond. We did 10miles but this could easily be at least a 20mile trail. Just go in reverse and mixup the loops. Totally enjoyable and I would use this all the time if I lived close to it.
We stayed at the Columbia River RV Park and rode out of the park along Marine Drive for .8 miles and picked up the trail. If you look at the Traillink map the 3 sections are not joined together. But we rode the road between sections with no problems. There is a designated bike path on the road (not as wide as I would like it) but we are both 79 and average riders and did it with no real problems. The distances are short between the sections. The bike path is sometimes right on the river up on a "dike" and then crosses Marine Drive for periods on the other side. We had no problem following the path and enjoyed it all. Only saw about 6 other bikes. Really very few walkers except for a special 3K event by the police dept but it was no problem.. So we did not quite finish the third section - went a total of 12 miles and turned around. So probably another 3? miles to the end. The river was like glass this day. Any ride with water is a great ride for us.
Nice connection between Kaiser Station and down by Home Depot. There’s a couple of cracks that you need to be careful of other than that. Great ride.
Wonderful ride in the park. Safe, green, quiet, and a bit scenic.
We camped at the county fairgrounds in Rickreall and rode into Monmouth to visit college haunts. An enjoyable day.
Overall this is a very nice but in need of better maintenance. I echo those that would love a new surface, but fully understand the challenge of finding funding. I rode the Vernonia to Stubb Steward state park section the other day. While some efforts have been made to improve the bridge approaches several still need additional work. And efforts to demarcate other trail hazards (dips, root bumps etc) should be repainted to highlight them for safety’s sake. Due to the shade/sun nature of the trail for much of its length old eyes don’t adjust as quickly as the once did and the faded paint warning are not as affective as they were when first new installed
Came to do a long run. Couldn’t finish because the hills are so intense. But, it’s a beautiful trail and well maintained!
A sunny Saturday but only one other person on this trail full of historical markers about the Tigard/Tualatin area.
Some of the complaints about the trail from earlier in the year seem to have been resolved. There are new approaches to some of the bridges and attempts made to partially fill the worst of the cracking in the pavement. Bumps and dips are well-marked, so often avoidable if you're paying attention. So thanks to whoever is doing this good work! A tree across the path on our way to Vernonia was - surprisingly - completely cleared by the time we biked back, so someone is paying attention! Great ride!
We parked at B and 2nd and it was a bit tricky figuring out how to get on the right trail to Philomath but finally got to it. Worse part is there is now a much bigger area in the field under the overpass that has a lot of homeless camp. No one bothered us They have marked the few bumps in the asphalt with white paint which was helpful. Would not do again.
There were definitely some areas that needed over due maintenance. Over all it was an enjoyable ride. Did the whole length both ways
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