Three Elders Route

Dogs No Dogs

Features Historical Significance · Views

This route offers a fairly easy excursion, mostly through land that used to be owned by a lumber company. It offers one thing you don't normally get to see on trails though, and that is art installations. Another great thing about this trail system is much of it is bikeable as well. For this route, you make your way up the trail system, taking a couple of the side trails, looking around the top of Iowa Hill to take in some nice views and coming back down a more direct route.

From the Chehalem Ridge Nature Park parking area, you'll first head out on the Woodland trail, following it until you reach the Ammefu Trail, which you take for a short side diversion to visit the first statue. Continuing on, you rejoin with the Woodland Trail and continue on it until you reach the Ayeekwa trail and get on that. This trail also takes you on a little diversion to a more natural forest setting compared to the human planted tree areas.

Soon, this meets up with the Witches Butter trail, which we turn right onto and follow for a while, passing a junction with the Chehalem ridge trail, and continuing on to the Mampat Trail which takes you to the top of Iowa Hill. After circling around Iowa Hill and starting to head back, we also take a little loop on the Zorzal Trail near the hilltop before getting back to the Mampat trail until we hit the Timber Road.

For this route, we just follow Timber road for a little bit until it reaches the Woodland trail. We then get on that and follow it most of the way back to the beginning, but hop on the short Castor trail near the end to bring it home.

A great variety of mushrooms dot the sides of the trails in the fall

The area around this park at one time contained villages of the indigenous Atfalati people.