Portland - Oregon - includes related article

Sunset, August, 1994 by Steve Lorton, Bonnie Henderson

Our readers and writers share their favorite places in the West's most gracefully changing city

Portlanders love Portland. When we asked our Northwest readers to tell us their favorite places to eat, drink, shop, play, and generally enjoy the best of what Portland offers, our mailroom was swamped and our fax machine went into overdrive as the responses poured in.

It quickly became apparent that what Portlanders love most about their city are the venerable institutions and places that have been with them through this century, reverently cared for and updated. In art, architecture, and ambience, Portland gives the visitor a sense that it has been around--and will be around--a long time.

Still, the city is no slave to the past. Everywhere you turn, you see testimonies to the compatibility of past and present in Portland's urban life. Just look northeast across the Willamette River from downtown to the soaring glass towers of the new Oregon Convention Center, and to their left you'll see the black networks of antique industrial lace that make up the Steel Bridge's twin towers. Stroll along the river to the Bill of Rights Memorial, a tribute to Japanese Americans interned during World War II that has found a place in the city's heart alongside memorials to pioneers, war veterans, and Sacagawea. Hop on the city's state-of-the-art light rail system, and ride past Old Town's cast-iron fronted buildings. Have dinner at a restaurant such as Higgins, where delicious contemporary cuisine is served in a 1917 building.

On the following pages, you'll find dozens of new and enduring pleasures suggested by readers and Portland lovers on our staff. Sample a few next time you're in the city. But no need to rush--we'll always have Portland.

Outdoor Portland

Whether they're waterfront or wilderness, Portland knows how to do parks right

Few American cities rival Portland when it comes to wonderful places to be outdoors. The city's residents, past and present, can take a large share of the credit. Portlanders know when to leave well enough alone when they have a natural treasure such as Forest Park, and they know how to cultivate beautiful outdoor spaces such as the rose and Japanese gardens. They even know how to turn an asphalt eye-sore into a grassy esplanade, as they did with Tom McCall Waterfront Park.

A forest in the city

Where but in Portland can you drive 10 minutes from city hall and be on a hiking trail winding through 4,800 deeply forested acres--without ever leaving the city?

Nowhere else, actually, at least in this country. Forest Park, a 7 1/2-mile long, 1 1/2-mile-wide tract of woods blanketing Tualatin Mountain in Portland's northwest corner, is the largest forested city park in the United States. A Unitarian minister first envisioned it in the late 19th century, and the esteemed Olmsted brothers' landscape architecture firm urged city fathers to create it in 1903, but the city council didn't finally vote to make the tract an official park until 1948.

When we asked readers to name their favorite places to hike in Portland, Forest Park's Wildwood Trail came out on top. A kind of Pacific Crest Trail of Tualatin Mountain, the 26 1/2-mile-long trail begins from a point just above the Washington Park Zoo, curves around ravines, and crosses creeks and ridges northwest to Germantown Road.

For a good introduction to Wildwood Trail and Forest Park, head west from N.W. 25th Avenue and Lovejoy Street on Cornell Road, past stately old homes and through two tunnels, to the parking area at Macleay Park (now part of Forest Park). If you walk north from here on the Wildwood Trail, you'll quickly drop down to Balch Creek, a protected cutthroat trout habitat shaded by old-growth Douglas fir. Cross the road and hike south, and you'll climb on switchbacks for a mile or so to Pittock Mansion and one of the best city views to be found anywhere.

For more hiking suggestions, pick up a copy of One City's Wilderness, by Marcy Cottrell Houle (Oregon Historical Society Press, Portland, 1988; $9.95).

Roses and rocks in Washington Park

In a city of great gardens both private and public, Portlanders had no trouble picking their two favorites. The choices are understandable. Each is a world-class garden, a standout even in a town of horticultural sophisticates. And, luckily for the visitor, the two gardens are located close together in Washington Park, just west of downtown Portland.

First-time visitors to the International Rose Test Gardens are unfailingly amazed to see 4 1/2 acres of roses laid out in symmetrical, manicured beds backed by a spectacular view of downtown Portland and, weather cooperating, Mount Hood. One look and you understand instantly how Portland acquired its appellation the City of Roses.

The garden is a test site for the American Rose Society, the All-America Rose Selections, and the city of Portland Gold Medal Award. Garden beds on the second terrace are labeled with only a code number. That's because these plants have yet to be named and introduced to the nursery trade. If you find a plant you want, note the number; you can find out later if the plant has been named and released (less than half ever make the cut).