Portland keeps its best view at the top of the city. Council Crest Park — 1,071 feet up in the West Hills, the highest point in the city — was an amusement park and streetcar destination in 1907; today it’s a serene hilltop where the whole region arranges itself at your feet.
On clear days the panorama counts five Cascade volcanoes — Hood, St. Helens, Adams, Jefferson, even Rainier — above the meeting of the Willamette and Columbia rivers. The Marquam Trail and the 4T Trail loop make reaching it an adventure (tram, trail, trolley, train), and the summit’s lawn hosts picnics, wedding photos and a century’s worth of Portland proposals.
Streetcars once climbed here for the dancing pavilion. The dancing’s gone; the view that justified it remains, free as ever.
