Tuesday morning we drove to Milo McIver State Park in Estacada. There is a visitors center, but it is in the Clackamas Fish Hatchery which is in the park. They did not have any printed copies of maps for the park, so I took pictures of the map so that we could navigate the trails. This was fortunate, as the trails were easy to find but had no signage as to which trail you were on - no names, just signs pointing the way for horses or hikers.
We spent a few minutes learning about the spring Chinook rearing program and the fall Steelhead rearing program, with fish produced for both the Clackamas and Sandy rivers.
Outside the visitors center, they had some landscaping which included these unusual flowers (we never found a name for them).
The trails were nicely shaded by the trees we hiked through, and one flower that was rampant was foxglove.
While we started out near the river, we quickly ascended in the hills as we hiked Riverside Trail up to the overlook of the river.
As we came back down from the viewpoint, we noticed both that the foxglove was very tall and healthy, and included both purple and white varieties.
As we returned to the parking area, we crossed the road to the Rivermill trail which followed along the river for the first half of the loop trail.
Using my plant identification chart, we found red elderberry bushes.
When we returned to the parking area, we found signage about keeping the river clean - the Clackamas River feeds Portland's water system. That said, people can enter the river here and we saw kayakers and people on inner tubes.
On the drive out of the park, we stopped at the Milo McIver Memorial Overlook. It is new construction and appears to be nearly completed. McIver was a member of the Oregon Highway Commission from 1950 to 1962 and he was a strong supporter of state parks activities.
On the drive home, we saw this car - instead of "Got Milk" it asked "got thomas?" I had to take a photo.
One of the unique things about Portland is that instead of simply throwing things away, people regularly put things out for others to take and reuse or recycle; they often include a sign indicating that the item(s) is/are free. A few blocks from home, we came across this sign for "free dirt."
We spent a few minutes learning about the spring Chinook rearing program and the fall Steelhead rearing program, with fish produced for both the Clackamas and Sandy rivers.
Outside the visitors center, they had some landscaping which included these unusual flowers (we never found a name for them).
The trails were nicely shaded by the trees we hiked through, and one flower that was rampant was foxglove.
While we started out near the river, we quickly ascended in the hills as we hiked Riverside Trail up to the overlook of the river.
As we came back down from the viewpoint, we noticed both that the foxglove was very tall and healthy, and included both purple and white varieties.
As we returned to the parking area, we crossed the road to the Rivermill trail which followed along the river for the first half of the loop trail.
Using my plant identification chart, we found red elderberry bushes.
When we returned to the parking area, we found signage about keeping the river clean - the Clackamas River feeds Portland's water system. That said, people can enter the river here and we saw kayakers and people on inner tubes.
On the drive out of the park, we stopped at the Milo McIver Memorial Overlook. It is new construction and appears to be nearly completed. McIver was a member of the Oregon Highway Commission from 1950 to 1962 and he was a strong supporter of state parks activities.
On the drive home, we saw this car - instead of "Got Milk" it asked "got thomas?" I had to take a photo.
One of the unique things about Portland is that instead of simply throwing things away, people regularly put things out for others to take and reuse or recycle; they often include a sign indicating that the item(s) is/are free. A few blocks from home, we came across this sign for "free dirt."
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