Comfort Inn And Suites West Beaverton

Waterhouse Park

by glabah

This little neighborhood park consists of a forested area, some picnic tables, and a paved walkway that crosses the park and connects several streets in the neighborhood. There is a really nice bridge over a creek that attracts ducks and geese.

One small area of the park is set aside as a Camas preserve, in an effort to provide habitat for this native plant.

On one end of the park is the Waterhouse Rose Garden (across Foxborough Circle from Waterhouse Park) and at the other end is the Waterhouse Powerline Park. The only true public entrance from the street to this park is from the Foxborough Circle end of the park, but it is possible to follow some paved trails through some appartment complexes. Really, it is best if you come from the Waterhouse Powerline Park or from Foxborough Circle.

Through Waterhouse Powerline Park and the Willow Creek Nature Park complex the paved trails go all the way to 173rd Avenue.

Tualatin Hills Nature Park with Snow, Dec 28, 2008

by glabah

The last half of December, 2008 gave a fair amount of snow to the Portland area. By December 26 most of it had melted away, and by December 28 much of life had returned to normal.

However, the Tualatin Hills Nature Park still had a fair amount of snow scattered throughout the reserve. Some areas had none, while others were in very deep snow - with micro climates, this type of thing happens.

You won't see much snow in the above picture, but you will see that this pond at the Nature Park is covered in ice.

It can be a real pain trying to maintain a nature park like this, and also try to maintain the human maintained structures and trails. The ice brought down several trees along this bridge, including one that completely removed the bridge.

Finding the trails were never a problem, thanks to the excellent maintenance of the trail workers at the nature park.

Meanwhile, over at the frog pond, there was only one small tuft of snow visible. The various microclimates around the Tualatin Hills Nature Park are certainly varied.

"NEW TRAILS!!!"

There are new trails and old trails with pavement added over last year. On the west side of the railroad line that runs by the Tualatin Hills Nature Park, the power line maintenance access road has been turned into a paved trail. Furthermore, south and east of Milikan Way, more trail has been added, so that a paved trail runs along Milikan Way, but not right beside it so it is somewhat separated from traffic noise, almost all the way to Beaverton Creek!

While these additions have been here a few months, they were not here last year when I did the other travelogue, so this is the first time I have had a chance to document all the work that has gone on to improve things in the area over the last year.

This photo was taken very close to where I saw the deer last year. You would not be able to recognize it! At that time, even though it was still winter, there was still some green around. This year, there is a snow-encased bridge.

I have always found the archways and tunnels formed by the tree branches at the Tualatin Hills Nature Park somewhat interesting. Snow on the ground adds a little bit to the winter scene that would otherwise be mostly brown.

Even in places with fairly heavy snow, the cleared out trails are reasonably easy to follow.