Forest Park: Ridge Trail

Forest Park Ridge Trail,  A City Hike

As goal-oriented people, we tend to like hikes to a great view, like a waterfall, or a peak. We get carried away planning destination hikes and often overlook Forest Park, forgetting that this amazing city park and its trails are no more than five miles from our backyard. The Ridge Trail hike, on the north end of Forest Park, offers a very cool peek-a-boo of Portland's iconic St Johns Bridge, and does not require much planning at all.  My son admires this bridge in all of its majesticness, so he was immediately keen on doing this hike. 

I planned pretty much the shortest route from Skyline down to the bridge. Typically, people hike this from the bridge up, or even from Cathedral Park up, but we decided to hike downhill first.

Ready to go! Fireline 7 connects to the Ridge Trail.

Though we'd been talking about doing this hike for a while, we spontaneously chose one of the hottest August afternoons for this trek, in the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic. We were going stir crazy being housebound with the AC cranked and had to get out. We thought we'd get out under nature's AC, the Doug Fir canopy. 

A mound to climb and have a look just past the old roadbed.

Parking atop the trail, in the hidden little lot where Skyline intersects Springville Rd, we eagerly hopped on Firelane 7. I, holding my open La Croix, my son armed with a canteen, we were set for what we thought would be a little meander into the woods, however, this hike proved to be much more intense!  We turned off Firelane 7 and onto the Ridge Trail. As we walked we took in the dryness of the woods at this point in the summer. We were post-wildflower season but did see many, many sword ferns and cedars.

You will also find many leafy maples on this trail. 

There were also tons of spiders in their intricate, beautiful webs. We believe we heard an animal call of some kind but weren't sure what it was. A bit more than halfway down you will intersect the Wildwood trail, and then a bit later take a quick jog to the left on an old roadbed and then take a quick right to continue onto the Ridge Trail.

Can you see the spider in its web in the foreground? 

Down the ridge and a few switchbacks later it's the moment we had been waiting for as the cathedral-like arches of the bridge finally came into soft focus through the trees. So exciting. 

The bridge coming into soft focus.

Then, we saw it clear as day when we arrived at the clearing: the tall green spires against the deep blue summer sky. A perfect photo op view of the bridge. 

Full focus! 

A few feet more there is a footbridge surrounded by late summer blackberry vines full of fruit and invasive ivy. Here you can rest and stare at the tiny cars making their way across the gothic bridge and take in views of Mt Ranier and Mt St Helens as well. Gorgeous! 

He loves it so! View from the footbridge where we stayed in awe a while! 

                                             

Photo from the footbridge, see the snow-topped mountains? By the way, do you know the bridge was originally supposed to be painted black and yellow like a bumblebee?

The way back up was nothing short of a quad and glute burner. The elevation gain here is 900ft in a very short 1.5 or so miles. Sweat dripped off my body like I was in a hot yoga class. I had to take off a completely soaked t-shirt and hike in my sports bra. 

Headed back up! It gets steep! 

My son took a few rests and we sipped water along the steep climb up. We cheered when we made it back onto Firelane 7, and again when we made it up the hill into the parking lot. 

Burning and sweating. Found a tree to rest on.

My son dwarfed by the trees. Notice all the sword ferns.

This was a short but very rewarding, quintessential Portland hike.  It certainly lived up to my son's expectations. To make this hike longer, you can connect from Fairlane 7 to other trails, including Wildwood and Trillium. You can also add a walk across the bridge and into Cathedral Park. We opted not to, because at 400 ft tall and 1,207 feet across, both of us are terrified of walking across this bridge. I hold my breath driving over it. But we sure love to admire it!

Link to Google Map