Between the Sellwood bluff and the Willamette River hides Portland’s first urban wildlife refuge — Oaks Bottom, a 163-acre floodplain lake and marsh where great blue herons stalk the shallows within sight of downtown towers.
The flat Springwater Corridor trail skirts the refuge for easy family biking, while footpaths dip to viewing spots where bald eagles, osprey, beavers and painted turtles go about their business. Spring brings a dawn chorus of migrating songbirds; winter fills the lake with ducks and geese.
The mural on the nearby Portland Memorial mausoleum — one of the largest hand-painted murals in America, depicting the refuge’s own birds — is the perfect finale. Wild Portland, no car trip required.
