Read Our Big Backyard Fall 2021

An enormous tree with multiple trunks reaches high into the canopy of a forest.

Western red cedar fill Newell Creek Canyon. Some are enormous, and none more fetching than this titan along Cedar Grove Trail.

Jamartae Brown took his first hike in his mid-twenties. He didn't expect nature to welcome him the way it did.

A brown weasel with a cream belly stands on concrete under a bush, it looks like it is ready to pounce.

Photo courtesy Curtis Mahon (iNaturalist CC)

Oct. 5, 2021 5:27 p.m.

Sometime this fall or early winter, Newell Creek Canyon Nature Park will open its gate to its neighbors in Oregon City and visitors from across the region. The 236-acre park holds 2.5 miles of walking and hiking trails and, in a first for a Metro park, 2 miles of dedicated mountain biking trails. With plenty of benches along the trails, picnic tables and restrooms at entrance, Newell Creek Canyon is perfect for a quick hike or a long afternoon in nature.

For a quarter century, Metro has worked to protect Newell Creek Canyon. The canyon habitat filters and cleans water that flows into Newell Creek, which in turn goes to Abernethy Creek just before reaching the Willamette River. Bigleaf maple and western redcedar fill the park, which is home to animals big and small, including deer.

This restoration and the creation of the park is thanks to voters choosing to invest in nature. The park was finished with funds from the 2019 parks and nature bond and day-to-day operations are supported by the local option levy that was renewed in 2016.

Read about the region's newest nature park in the Fall 2021 edition of Our Big Backyard.