Powell Butte Nature Park

Powell Butte Nature Park covers 612 acres on an extinct volcano in outer SE Portland, offering about 10 miles of trails through meadows, Douglas fir forest, and fruit orchards (remnants of the farm era). The summit gives a 360-degree view that on clear days includes Mount Hood, Mount St Helens, Mount Adams, and Mount Rainier simultaneously — comparable to Council Crest but less known and less crowded.

The park is popular with mountain bikers, trail runners, and dog walkers. The mountain bike trail system was purpose-built and is of moderate difficulty. The orchard section in the north of the park has apple, pear, and plum trees that produce fruit available to visitors. Trailhead and parking at SE 162nd Avenue and Powell Boulevard; accessible by MAX Green Line to SE 162nd station.

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Powell Butte is an extinct shield volcano — a broad, gently sloping lava dome rather than a cone — that formed about 300,000 years ago. The city purchased the butte in 1925 and farmed it until the 1980s, when it was converted to a nature park. The butte is currently used for water storage: two large underground reservoirs beneath the summit hold water for the east side of Portland, and the water management infrastructure is integrated into the park's trails.

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