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Rising above Happy Valley, Scouters Mountain Nature Park offers a lovely vantage point to admire Mount Hood and surrounding valley.  Walk through a shady forest with trees more than a century old, including some that have grown for 220 years. This site was once a Boy Scout Camp. If you ever visited the Boy Scouts lodge that used to stand at the Scouters Mountain Shelter (SMS), you might recognize salvaged pieces of the lodge. Explore throughout the year for different highlights: trillium and wood violets in the spring, dazzling views during summer, mushrooms in the fall, Pacific wren calls when winter arrives. 

The park has two parking lots. The main lot has several parking spaces, including accessible. The upper lot is where the park amenities are including: restrooms, covered picnic shelter, drinking fountain and trash receptacles. You can walk uphill from the main lot on the paved Shelter Trail, lined by fir trees to the covered SMS or you can drive up the access road. The upper lot at the shelter has two accessible parking spaces. Other spaces are not available.

This location was once a volcano and is now an extinct lava dome. From here you can walk the Lava Dome Trail, which is a quarter-mile loop that is a combination of compacted crushed gravel and dirt. For a longer walk, the natural surface Boomer Trail offers a mile-long loop through the forest. 

Think of the Boomer Trail having two parts. The trail to the left of the SMS is natural surface that has a slight decline and some tree roots.  Large stone stairs are located on this section of the trail. The Boomer Trail on the right is steep and covered with tree roots. If you do the complete loop, you will cross over the road to the park.

Although the land is now a public park, its spirit of adventure remains. Be aware that dogs are not allowed in the park because they can damage sensitive habitat and threaten wildlife. Service dogs are allowed.

Scouters Mountain Nature Park

Metro

Description

Name: Scouters Mountain Nature Park

Parks agency: Metro

Contact: (503) 797-1545

Location: 11000 SE Honorable Way, Happy Valley, OR 97086

Hours: legal sunrise to sunset, daily

Public transit: none

Length: Lava Dome Trail loop = .25 mile – Boomer Trail loop = 1 mile

How difficult do we consider it: Easy–difficult with steep cross-slope and grade on parts of Boomer Trail

Date of last visit: October 1, 2021

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