My brother and his families last full day visiting from Missouri was Saturday, so we wanted a nearby hike for the morning to give us more time to visit later in the day. We turned to nearby Minto-Brown Island Park where a family of otters had recently been seen. We were excited to have our niece join us for the outing.
We began our hike from Parking Lot #1 (closest to the park entrance).
Map at the parking lot.
We took the paved path from the parking lot across Willamette Slough then turned right along the slough on the Brown Squirrel Loop.
Willamette Slough
As we were passing between the slough on our right and a field on our left, we spotted a buck.
The otters had been seen in the slough, so we detoured to a couple of viewpoints where the slough widened. We failed to spot any otters but did see a number of ducks, birds, and a family of nutria.
When I first spotted something in the water, I got excited, but I quickly realized it was nutria and not the otters.
Unfortunately, the nutria are highly invasive, regardless the family was kind of cute.
The silhouette of a cedar waxwing.
Swallows
Great blue heron
Ducks
We took a paved spur to the right when the trail forked to get a couple more views of the slough.
This spur spends much of the year submerged.
I’m not sure when/if this viewpoint is accessible on dry ground.
More ducks but no otters.
We returned to the main path and turned right when we reached the Osprey Loop and followed this loop to the Willamette River.
Oregon grape with perennial peavine behind.
One of many rabbits we would see during our hike.
Hardhack
Common madia
Robin
The Willamette River
A heron and ducks on the far side of the river.
We continued along the river and stuck to the paved path when it turned away from the river.
Shortly after leaving the river we spotted not one but two does.
The first doe was coming up the trail toward us.
The second doe was in the brush to the right of the trail.
The second doe.
Yarrow and chicory
The path brought us to the Shelter Parking Lot (lot #3) where we left the Osprey Loop in favor of the Blue Heron Loop. We followed the paved path across Oxbow Slough and continued to a split in the trail where the Blue Heron Loop continued on a dirt path to the left.
Female wood duck and ducklings in Oxbow Slough.
Coming up on the split in the trail.
Woodpecker
Wasp nest
Oxbow Slough
Goose and ducks at Oxbow Slough.
Great blue heron
When the Blue Heron Loop came within sight of the paved Purple Rabbit Loop we cut over to that path and turned left.
This trail brought us to Homedale Road which it briefly followed before veering away to complete a loop around Oxbow Slough.
Bindweed
We were slowed a bit on this stretch by the presence of ripe thimbleberries.
Old abandoned car along the path.
Squirrel
Self-heal
We turned right on the Yellow Duck Loop then took a left on a paved path along the western end of the dog park which brought us to the entrance road where we turned right.
An upside-down cedar waxwing.
We followed the entrance road back toward the entrance to cross the road on the Brown Squirrel Loop and returned to our car. This hike was 6.8-miles with minimal elevation gain.
Despite not seeing the otters we all had a good time. There was plenty of other wildlife to see and some tasty ripe berries to snack on. We were back home before 10am which gave us plenty of time to visit before we had to say goodbye to my brother’s family. Happy Trails!
Flickr: Minto-Brown Island Park
wanderingyuncks 
One reply on “Minto-Brown Island Park 07/11/2026”
Fun to see this. Just walked some of these trails yesterday. Good to know about the otters. We didn’t see any either, though I’ll keep an eye out for them in the future.