Colony Creek Loop Hike
From Oregon Hikers Field Guide
- Start point: Tigard Library Trailhead
- End point: Milton Court Trailhead
- Hike type: Loop
- Distance: 2.3 miles
- Elevation gain: 45 feet
- High point: 175 feet
- Difficulty: Easy
- Seasons: All year
- Family Friendly: Yes
- Backpackable: No
- Crowded: No
Contents |
Description
The southernmost section of the existing Fanno Creek Trail system extends itself south from the Tigard Library about 0.4 miles. This route is also known as the Colony Creek Greenway. Once you reach Fanno Creek Drive, you can make a loop back to the library by following sidewalks for ¾ mile to enter the little-known 26-acre Fields Natural Area, an expanse of mature mixed woodland and meadow between Fanno Creek and the Portland & Western (WES) Railroad’s Fuller Yard. A developed trail may be engineered here sometime in the future, and there are plans for a trail coming down Red Rock Creek, but for now the experience is rather rustic.
- Please note that in 2023, the loop could only completed through up to a foot of standing water because of a beaver dam on Red Rock Creek.
From the library parking area, head east to a sidewalk that proceeds south across Pinebrook Creek to a sign for the Colony Creek Trail where it continues behind condos/apartments with a willow swamp to your left. Then the views open up above tight meanders in Fanno Creek. Invasive species run rife here, including Himalayan blackberry, traveler’s joy clematis, and English holly. Deciduous trees such as white oak, Oregon ash, and red alder dominate the canopy. At a viewpoint over the creek, there’s a small bench, and the local mallards may be feeding below.
You’ll continue the trail on the left from the end of Deann Court and then Char Court. The last section is hemmed in by fences on both sides. When you come to Fanno Creek Drive, go left on the sidewalk and follow this round through a four-way intersection and then cross 80th Court. You’ll pass a densely wooded creek corridor to reach SW Bonita Road, where you should bear left.
Follow this busy artery east past new and older condo/apartment complexes, and cross Fanno Creek on a bridge. Then turn left onto Milton Court. Bonita Park appears on your left. Here thickets obscure sightings of the creek, but there is a play area with picnic tables and and basketball hoops. On the opposite side of the street are buildings housing Medical Teams International and SHB Power Plant Engineering. At the turnaround at the end of Milton Court, two tracks lead into a woodland, the Fields Natural Area.
Take the left track. The forest here is a remnant of the attractive woods that once cloaked this area, a mix of oak, Douglas-fir, grand fir, western red-cedar, Oregon ash, and big-leaf maple. You’ll see the Portland & Western Railroad to your right. At a junction, branch off to the left, and soon find yourself passing through a tunnel of young ash trees, with Fanno Creek flowing to the left. Other shrubby growth includes red osier dogwood, hazel, and Pacific ninebark. Tall oak trees tower overhead. You’ll leave the woods and hike along the edge of a wide meadow. A trail bears left, and 20 yards later, a narrower trail turns right. Before taking the narrow trail, you can follow the wider track to get a view of Fanno Creek.
The narrow track is your return route to the Tigard Library. However, it may be flooded with 6 - 12 inches of water because of a beaver dam (see below for options). The trail passes through thickets and, in 2023, there was a one-foot high beaver dam across the trail itself, which then drops into the little gully of Red Rock Creek. Looking right, you’ll see a five-foot beaver dam on Red Rock Creek. The trail continues through dense thickets with private property signs on the right side.
At Hall Boulevard, go left a couple of yards and then left again to follow the Fanno Creek Trail over the curving Woodruff Bridge. A paved path at the library takes you past signs in English and Spanish that extoll the benefits of reading and tell a children’s story.
- If the trail in the Fields Natural Area is flooded, you can return to the meadow. Bear right and then left to head towards the railroad fence. You can follow a wide track along the east edge of the woods to return to Milton Court.
Fees, Regulations, etc.
- Dogs on leash
- Restrooms, picnic tables at Tigard Library; seasonal port-a-potty, play area, picnic tables at Bonita Park
- Respect private property signs
Maps
Trip Reports
- Search Trip Reports for Colony Creek Loop Hike
Related Discussions / Q&A
- Search Trail Q&A for Colony Creek Loop Hike
Guidebooks that cover this hike
- none
More Links
Page Contributors
- bobcat (creator)