Westside Trail (OR)

Oregon

8 Reviews

The developing Westside Trail in Portland's western suburbs will be a 25-mile paved, multi-use path between the Willamette River to the north and the Tualatin River to the south. Currently, 8 miles are complete with much of the route transversing a scenic Bonneville Power utility corridor.

Both the Westside Trail and the Waterhouse trail make up a ten-mile nearly-contiguous "backbone" that traverse the same utility corridor and a number of parks throughout the Portland suburbs. Along the way, trail-goers will have views of woodlands, wetlands, native prairie grasses, and wildflowers. Bird watching and wildlife spotting promise to be popular past times.

Starting at the southern end in Barrows Park (along SW Barrows Rd.) the trail continues north for nearly 6 miles until reaching SW Blanton St. This section of the trail passes through Murray Hill Park and Barrows Park. Then following a brief on-road section, the Westside Trail picks back up just south of Tualatin Hills Nature Park, a 222-acre nature preserve with miles of paved and unpaved trails. This section of the trail continues for 3.29 miles until reaching NW Bethany Ct.

At NW Bethany Ct., the trail segment ends once again, and for trail users looking to connect with the northern end of the trail must do it via. a short on-road section. Heading north from the trail end along NW Bethany Ct. as it turns into Bethany Rd. There is an unprotected bike lane along some sections of this road. After turning on to NW Bronson Rd., the trail picks back up as the Waterhouse trail for another 2.38 miles. The trail passes through the Bronson Creek Greenway and Emerald Estates Park until reaching NW Springville Rd near Portland Community College - Rock Creek.

Nearby this northernmost section of the Waterhouse trail, a section of the Westside Trail runs parallel for 1.88 miles from NW Kaiser Ave. to NW Fiesta Ave.

Other short segmented sections traverse nearby parks like Progress Lake, Barrows Park, Murrayhill Park, Westside Linear Park, Hart Meadows Park, Summercrest Park, and Burntwood Park. The details of these segments can be found on the Westside Trail and Waterhouse Trail pages.

Parking and Trail Access

Parking is available at 14795 SW Murray Scholls Dr near Murray Hill Park and the southern trail end, at the Tualatin Hills Interpretive Center (15655 SW Millikan Way), and at the Waterhouse Soccer Field (16351 NW Mission Oaks Dr).

See TrailLink Map for more detailed directions.

Beautiful

August 2023 igragbsi

Wonderful wildflowers, yummy blackberries to snack on, beautiful views and lots of smiling others (dog walkers, individuals riding their bicycles, joggers and morning leisure walker!). It's been extended from 8 miles to 11 at this point in time

Not super beautiful

July 2022 biguglymaniac

Basically i went on the part of the trail near Beaverton/Nike area. Very well maintained but not very continuous. Not a lot of awesome views, lots of elevation change.

Fabulous!

April 2021 geconn

What a terrific trail! We took our e-bikes out on their maiden voyage and, boy, was I glad to have the pedal assist! There are some steep hills, and depending on your fitness level or bike type, they may be a deal-breaker. But if you’re intrepid and game, it’s a beautiful, quiet trail with great views. Both Mount Hood and Mount Saint Helens were clearly visible today. We took MAX to the Merlo/158th stop and accessed there and made it all the way down to Scholls Ferry. I’d do this one again.

Great Trail

December 2020 amynwill2003

The hills are steep but the scenery makes up for that. Peaceful, rolling vistas. A beautiful challenge that feels like a back country trek. I wouldn't try to bike it unless you are super fit. Some of the hills after Nora St will kick your butt just walking them..

Westside Trail (OR) Reviews

Submit Review

Accordion

Switch Back Hill Climb

September 2016 gustawind

We took our young (6yrs- 10 yr kids) family of 6 on this bike ride but the hills were too much for us! We started at the Tualatin Hills Nature Reserve and headed south.
Very beautiful and scenic, no trail traffic, but the switch backs we hit after we crossed 160th were too much. We ended up pushing bikes up the summit and then decided we had better turn back. I think we'll wait until the kids are older before we tackle this trail again.

Hill Training

May 2015 ruthcina

Excellent training for hill running.

New Trail to explore

August 2014 061772

Its better than Fanno Creek Trail and the Sellwood Corridor. Barely anyone is using it yet and its has a cross country feel with some rolling hills. The hills aren't that bad. We are lucky to have this in our area.

Rather hilly

August 2014 anneward97_tl

My husband and I are leisure recreational bikers and thought this would be a nice 16 mile ride, but it was more than we were up for. There are some killer hills that we ended up pushing our bikes up. Our first clue should've been the fact that we didn't see any other bikers on this 8 mile trail - ha!
It was pretty but we were too pooped to enjoy it! But for younger bikers or bikers in better shape this would probably not be hard at all. It would be super for walking though.