Champoeg State Park

Today I went to Champoeg (shampoo-ey) State Park and I think I may have discovered a little slice of heaven right here in the Willamette Valley.  It was absolutely beautiful and a nice, moderate, walk on well maintained trails.  Half of the three mile trail was paved so this particular hike would be good for anyone with a disability, bikers, or people who just need a sturdier place to stand.  This park is a campground so there has the potential of being overly crowded and maybe somewhat loud.  Fortunately for me, there were only a couple of campers there so I basically had the place to myself.  It was extremely peaceful, serene,and just a nice walk.  It's less than 45 minutes away from Portland so I recommend it to everyone.

I managed to make it through without any wardrobe malfunctions and ended up taking 2 1/2 hours walking this trail.  This was because I was meandering along and had to stop every two feet and check out another amazing creature that crossed my path.  I saw two otters munching away at breakfast almost as soon as I got there!  It was pretty cool. There were lots of prairie dogs and a few bunnies. I saw so many cool birds I can't even write them all but some of the more striking ones I saw were the American Kestrel, a flock of Flickers, a Downey Woodpecker, about 50 red wing blackbirds, a gazillion swallows, and what I think was a Purple Martin (but I'm not so sure about that one). It was a bird lovers paradise!  That's the real reason it took so long for me to walk it.  I also reverted back to my childhood for a few minutes and ran as fast as I could through the meadow.  There's something really satisfying about running through meadows and I just couldn't help myself.  I'm pretty sure I looked like a dork and I'm lucky I didn't break my ankle but it was totally worth it.  I only saw one other person on the trail and I definitely suggest going in the early-ish morning to see all the awesome birds and avoid the people.

I give this walk a 10 out of 10!  It's super easy, beautiful, and close to town.   An interesting side note, in one of the pictures of the river you can see a green sign on a post by the pier- this is the high water mark for the 1996 floods. You can also see the otter on the log in the middle of the last picture, and another otter in the upper right hand corner.