Jackson Bottom Wetlands Trail

A day after my long hike at William L. Finley National Wildlife Refuge (post) I dialed it back a little. For day 5 of my “Wildlife Week” vacation I had two short hikes planned to revisit a pair of wildlife areas along the Tualatin River the Tualatin River National Wildlife Refuge and Jackson Bottom Wetlands Preserve.

First up was the Tualatin River NWR. We’d visited this refuge twice previously, first in March 2019 and then again in May 2023. The seasonal trails at this refuge are closed from October 1st through April 30th so today was the first day the Wetlands Loop would be open this year.

I parked at the Roy Rogers Road Trailhead as we had done in 2023 primarily because it was a little closer to Jackson Bottom.

My route utilized portions of the seasonal Wetland Trail and the River Trail to make a loop with a short out-and-back on the Ridgetop Trail. It came to 4.7-miles with about 100′ of elevation gain, most of which was on the Ridgetop Trail.
The orange track is a portion of the Wetland Trail that I had not previously hiked.

Mt. Hood from the Wetlands Trail.

I spotted a couple of deer shortly after setting out.

I believe this is a savannah sparrow.

Geese families

Killdeer

It was just under 40 degrees Fahrenheit when I started, but the forecast called for temperatures to reach 80 by the afternoon.

Geese, goslings, and goose eggs.

Sandpiper

Not sure what type of fish this is but they were thrashing about near the shoreline, and I had seen similar behavior the day before in McFadden Marsh at Finley NWR.

Duck and ducklings

Sleeping nutria

Purple martins and a swallow (bottom left).

Egrets and a great blue heron.

Closer look at the egrets and heron.

Robin

I stopped at the Refuge Headquarters to use the facilities, and this pair of bald eagles arrived at the same time.

The eagles on the tree behind the headquarters.

Mallard

Sandpipers

Riverside Trail

Tualatin River

Song sparrow

Inside-out flower

The Ridgetop Trail to the left. There is a bench and railed overlook but the view is blocked by trees. If there hadn’t been any leaves there may have been a view but today there wasn’t.

The only trillium I saw with any petals left.

Bleeding heart

Northern flicker

I spotted an American kestrel in this snag. I had been hoping to see one during this week’s hikes.

American kestrel

Crow

Northern shoveler

Wildflowers near the trailhead.

Lupine, plectritis, checkerbloom, and golden paintbrush.

Not a huge amount of wildlife here today but the kestrel was a nice addition to the list of species seen this week. This was by far the busiest hike of the week, possibly due to it being the first day of the seasonal trails being open. I was done with the hike at 8am so not only was it busy, they were early birds.

It was a 20-minute drive from the refuge to Jackson Bottom Wetland so it was still fairly early when I arrived at the trailhead.

Our previous visit here was last April (post) and we hiked the majority of trails here during that visit, so this was a near repeat except I went in the opposite direction (clockwise).
This route came to 4.4-miles and just 35′ of elevation gain.

In addition to wildlife the preserve has some nice flower gardens near the visitor center.

Camas

Larkspur

Not a native wildflower but pretty.

Columbine

Rabbit

The look on their faces seems to indicate they were not expecting to see me there.

Going back the other way.

Karaoke

Helpful maps and/or pointers are located at trail junctions.

Swallow

Swallows

Cinnamon Teal

Ring-necked ducks

Purple martins

Canada geese

Jackson Bottom Wetlands Trail passing Oak Island Marsh.

Crow harassing an osprey over Oak Island Marsh.

I thought flamingos were pink.

American coot in NW Pond.

Another napping nutria.

Robin

Gadwall

Egrets at Wapato Marsh.

Great blue heron in Pintail Pond.

Lupine along the trail.

Green winged teal

Heading toward Salamander Slough.

Two turtles and a mallard.

Long billed dowitcher

Cabbage white?

Checkerbloom along the Coyote Hill Trail.

Common yellowthroat

Savannah sparrow

Spotted towhee

Tualatin River

Deer crossing Pintail Pond. I think these are the same three I saw earlier.

I’ve been spotted.

Rabbit on the left along the River Trail.

Salmonberry

Western meadowrue

Wild rose

Stairs leading to the trail on the River Trail.

Jackson Bottom was noticeably less busy than the refuge had been. It was a nice hike with a fairly steady supply of wildlife. These are both good destinations and were a nice addition to wildlife week. Happy Trails!

Flickr: Tualatin River WLR and Jackson Bottom

In the original version of our 2024 hiking schedule we’d planned on visiting Jackson Bottom Wetlands Preserve and Rood Bridge Park in March, but the thing about wetlands is that they tend to be wet. We’d been waiting for all of the trails at Jackson Bottom to dry out, and according to online reports that had finally happened.

Both the preserve and park are located in the city of Hillsboro with the preserve being home to a nature center open 10am – 4pm seven days a week. We began our day at Jackson Bottom by parking at the south entrance near the nature center. (We did not visit the nature center primarily due to the fact that we finished our hike here before 9:30am.)

A network of trails provides numerous options to explore. For our hike we began on the River Trail at the SW corner of the parking lot.

This trail descended a staircase to a view of the Tualatin River.

The trail follows the river through woods with several varieties of Spring wildflowers.

Camas

Solomonseal

Fawn lilies

Thimbleberry

Giant purple wakerobin

The River Trail ended at the Kingfisher Marsh Loop where we turned right.
The trail signs were very helpful in keeping us on track.

Anna’s hummingbird

Viewpoint overlooking Kingfisher Marsh.

The trail crossed Jackson Slough on a footbridge.

After crossing the slough we turned right on a connector trail that brought us to the Pintail Pond Loop where we once again turned right.
Pintail Pond Loop

American goldfinch

A short distance from the connector trail junction we passed the Ash Trail which was temporarily closed due to unstable conditions.

We would have preferred sticking to the Pintail Pond Trail even if the Ash Trail had been open simply because the Pintail Pond Trail provided constant views of the pond where numerous ducks, geese and other birds could be seen.
Red-winged blackbird

Sparrow

Purple martins

American robin

There is a lot of lupine in the preserve but only a few had started blooming.

There was a connector trail down to the Ash Trail near a covered viewing deck, but again we opted to stay on the pond loop.

We paused near the viewing deck to watch the tree swallows glide around their houses.

Pintail Pond

Northern shoveler drake and a gadwall

Green-winged teal

Geese

Killdeer

At the northern end of the pond we arrived at the Jackson Bottom Wetlands Trail where we turned right.

We followed this trail past the northern end of the Ash Trail to a junction with the Coyote Hill Trail where, you guessed it, we turned right.
More camas

The Ash Trail.

Orange-crowned warbler

Jackson Bottom Wetlands

Can’t emphasize enough how helpful the map/pointer combinations are.

The Coyote Hill Trail doesn’t actually climb a hill, but rather it loops around a meadow with a view of Coyote Hill.

Noisy crow

Mourning dove

Our assumption was that that is Coyote Hill in the distance.

Western buttercups

Some houses on the wetlands border.

Golden-crowned sparrow

The Coyote Hill Trail brought us back to the Jackson Bottom Wetlands Trail near its end. We finally made a left turn and headed back toward Pintail Pond.

End of the trail.

Savannah sparrow

Spotted towhee

Passing Pintail Pond.

We stayed right at junctions following the Jackson Bottom Wetlands Trail to its end at Jackson Bottom North Trailhead.
Wapato Marsh

White-crowned sparrow

American robin

American coot

Ring-necked ducks

Wapato Marsh

Cormorants

Raised viewing platform with many tree swallow photobombs.

This couple was having quite the discussion.

The Bobcat Marsh Trail on the left.

Water treatment pipes at the other end of the Bobcat Marsh Trail.

NW Pond

The trail passed between the NW Pond on the left and Oak Island Marsh on the right.

NW Pond had a variety of waterfowl. This is a northern shoveler drake, ring-necked duck pair, four lesser scaups, and an American coot.

Pied-billed grebe in NW Pond

Lesser scaups

Goose and mallards

Yellow-rumped warbler

The northern trailhead.

Viewing platform at the trailhead.

On the way back we took the Bobcat Marsh Trail which passed Meadow Mouse Marsh.

Cinnamon teal on Meadow Mouse Marsh

Near the southern end of the Bobcat Marsh Trail a pair of geese were nesting on a pole and were noisily fending off a second pair of geese.

After rejoining the Jackson Bottom Wetlands Trail we followed it back to the Kingfisher Marsh Loop where we turned right.
Mt. Hood beyond Wapato Marsh

Back on the Kingfisher Marsh Loop.

We followed this trail to a junction below the Nature Center where we stayed straight at a junction and climbed a small hill to the Nature Center Trail.
The Kingfisher Marsh Loop turned left here.

The trail passed behind the Nature Center to some gardens.

Mason bee house

We followed the Nature Trail down to the River Trail which we followed back to the parking lot. Our hike here came in just under 5 miles with just 50′ of elevation gain. From the parking lot we drove 4.3 miles to Rood Bridge Park (it’s less than 2 miles as the crow flies).

The parking area here is rather large, but we chose to park at the northern end near the playground. From our parking spot we made our way toward the rhododendron garden.

Sign for the rhododendron garden.

Numerous paths loop through the garden, but we stayed mostly to the right as we made our way east to the Woodland Pond.

The Woodland Pond

At the pond we turned right on a paved trail which led us to the Rock Creek Trail.
Heading for the Rock Creek Trail.

Rock Creek from the Rock Creek Trail.

We were familiar with the Rock Creek Trail having hiked its two other segments in May 2022 (post). The eventual plan is for the three current segments to be connected to make a single 8-mile trail. We turned right onto the Rock Creek Trail and followed it to a junction with Lakeside Loop Trail where we took another right.
The maps for the park were a little tougher to follow as most of the trails weren’t named and there were a lot of interconnected short segments.

We followed this paved path past a trail leading downhill to a lake.

We stuck to the paved trail which brought us back to the parking lot and the beginning/end of the Rock Creek Trail.

The junction ahead is where the Rock Creek Trail beings/end according to the Rock Creek Trail maps. Maps of Rood Bridge Park simply refer to this as part of the “Main Trail Loop”, if they label it at all.

We followed the Rock Creek Trail downhill past a sign for a watercraft launch along the Tualatin River. The trail then followed the river before arriving at junction with the Lollipop Loop.

Mallards

Footbridge at the start of the Lollipop Loop.

We crossed Rock Creek on the footbridge and quickly found ourselves climbing a short but steepish hill to a forested ridge. The loop began a short distance after the trail flattened out.

As we had for most of the day we went right when the trail split and followed the path through the woods. There were several use trails cutting through the center of the loop as well as some spur trails leading to nearby homes, so it took some trial and error to find the “official” trail. We managed to only veer off course once, but we spent a fair amount of time pondering which way to go at several junctions. The highlight of this loop was the abundance of trillium. We were just catching the tail end of the bloom, but it was impressive.
There was a fair amount of Oregon grape as well.

Violets and trillium

After completing the loop we returned to the Rock Creek Trail, turning right and climbing back to the junction where we’d turned onto the Lakeside Loop earlier.

Western meadowrue

Fawn lilies

We veered right off of the paved trail onto a dirt path since it was a much more inviting surface.

The dirt path rejoined the paved path behind the Rhododendron Garden and playground.

We continued on the Rock Creek Trail as it passed behind the playground area and descended back down to Rock Creek on what was now a dirt/gravel trail.

Sparrow

Footbridge over Rock Creek.

Just over 100 yards beyond the footbridge the trail arrived at S 1st Avenue where the segment currently ends.

We turned around at street and headed back, taking a somewhat muddy spur trail that ran parallel to the main trail for 0.2 tenths of a mile just to change things up on the way back. When we got back to the Rhododendron Garden we passed through again on different paths to see more of the plants.
Left is the dirt path we’d taken earlier, straight is the Rock Creek Trail, and right led to the Rhododendron Garden.

This hike was approximately 2.5-miles with 100′ or so of elevation gain giving us just under 7.5-miles and 150′ of elevation gain for the day.
Jackson Bottom on the left and Rood Bridge to the right.

Both of these destinations would be great for kids. (Note dogs and bicycles are not allowed at Jackson Bottom.) We enjoyed Jackson Bottom a little more given the wildlife, but Rood Bridge was a nice park and the trillium display along the Lollipop Loop will not be forgotten. Happy Trails!

Flickr: Jackson Bottom Wetlands and Rood Bridge Park