Balch Creek Trail (part of Forest Park)

"A great hike minutes from downtown!"

You feel like you are a world away here.  The Balch Creek Trail is part of the Forest Park trail system and is really lovely.  For the littlest kids, it might be a bit long of a walk, but slightly older kids should have no problem.

From the parking lot, there is a reasonably steep hill to walk down (and you will have to walk back up at the end).  After that, the hills don't seem that bad and you can choose how long you want to walk.  I enjoy a 3+ mile round trip that takes you through the 'park', through a beautiful NW Portland  neighborhood, under one of our many bridges, and then back up along Balch Creek (the route can be found in William Sullivan's '100 Hikes in Northwest Oregon & Southern Washington'...hands down, these are the best hiking guides for Oregon).  You will walk along Balch Creek, which a tributary to the Willamette River and is home to cutt-throat trout and a huge variety of birds.  Not to mention a beautiful forest.

We first did this hike while I was pregnant and directly after my husband had hip surgery.  We did it very slowly, but we enjoyed it.  There were lots of families (folks of all ages) and the kids seemed to be enjoying themselves.  Since, we have done it with our guy in a backpack.

There are some hills, and no bathrooms (I seem to remember the ones at the trailhead being locked also...they may open at certain times of year though).  The parking lot is a little small, but we have never had any trouble finding a place to park.

The trailhead is a short walk from The Audubon Society of Portland (in fact it is the driveway directly before the ASP), so you can hike and then go look at birds.  Makes for a really nice afternoon!

Check out the attached websites for more details and photos of the area.  It is really beautiful.