• Rating: Moderate
  • Activity: Hike
  • Distance: 2.8 miles
  • Time:

Call it Forest Park’s last frontier. Perched at the park’s northern tip, Firelane 15 borders a power-line corridor that surveys Sauvie Island farmland and St. Helens’s snowy dome. To the west, a blanket of rugged blue hills unfurls to the Coast Range. Such remote topography is a solid bet for wildlife encounters. Park workers routinely spot coyote and black-tailed deer darting into the brush. Bobcat and elk tracks in the mud are not out of the question. And don’t miss the side trail from Fire-lane 15 to Keilhorn Meadow (to the right of the upper gate), a secluded, hemlock- and maple-fringed field—as pretty a place as any to listen for great horned owls.

ROUTE: From NW Skyline Blvd, follow Firelane 15, cross over the Wildwood Trail, and turn up Firelane 12 to BPA Road. Go right on BPA Road. Turn right on Wildwood Trail. Return via Firelane 15. (Round trip: 2.8 miles)