Kelly Creek Loop Hike
From Oregon Hikers Field Guide
- Start point: Woodland Drive Trailhead
- End point: Ironwood Lane
- Hike Type: Loop
- Distance: 1.2 miles
- Elevation gain: 130 feet
- High Point: 460 feet
- Difficulty: Easy
- Seasons: All
- Family Friendly: Yes
- Backpackable: No
- Crowded: No
Contents |
Hike Description
Kelly Creek Greenway is an example of a small pocket of native forest and stream habitat that was neglected for decades, but now has seen much attention and care in the form of volunteer work parties. Habitat has been restored through plantings along the creek, the pulling of invasives like ivy and blackberry, and the decommissioning of unnecessary user trails. This is a tiny remnant, to be sure, but a precious one as the concrete and tarmac of the suburbs ooze everywhere.
Take a wide gravel path down to a pond on Kelly Creek. Log structures have been placed here to provide fish habitat. The pond is vegetated on its north side by thickets of red osier dogwood, red alder and willow. On the south side rise shady cedars and maples. Return towards the street, and go left to cross the earth dam over Kelly Creek. Then bear left and enter a woodland of natural forest dominated by western red-cedar and big-leaf maple. Keep straight, head south, and then loop around to your left. The trail will take you through maple woods and back down towards Kelly Creek to eventually fetch up at 16th Drive.
Go left here and walk along a sidewalk to Ironwood Lane. Go left on Ironwood and walk two blocks. Make a left on Woodland Drive and walk half a block to an open space. The path here goes between clumps of Armenian blackberry and meets a gravel trail that drops below Woodland to give views of the deciduous thickets above the Kelly Creek Pond. Keep along this path until it rises to meet Woodland again.
Fees, Regulations, etc.
- Dogs on leash
- No facilities
Maps
Trip Reports
- Search Trip Reports for Kelly Creek Loop Hike
Related Discussions / Q&A
- Search Trail Q&A for Kelly Creek Loop Hike
Guidebooks that cover this hike
- none
More Links
- Gresham Trails (City of Gresham)
- Kelly Creek Greenway Trails (The Intertwine)
- Kelly Creek Greenway (U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service)
- “Gresham's Kelly Creek gets a little Earth Day love” (Statesman Journal)
Contributors
- bobcat (creator)