Orenco Woods Nature Park — Attraction in Hillsboro

Great park with lots of different uses.

There's a good length of trails for walking, running, riding. The portion of the loop trail down by the river isn't paved and is a bit steep in parts, but it's the same width and smooth gravel so most anything with wheels can't handle it except scooters.

The sand/water play area is awesome for kids (and adults who still have a bit of kid in them) in summer. I'll note that the water features aren't a splash pad type setup. You can build sandcastles, make a dam, and whatever else you can think of. Obviously have to bring your own tools. There's a nice rope climbing structure, and some swings, but that's about it for typical playground equipment. However, there is a decent play structure right across the street at the elementary school. There's also two musical instruments that I guess would be considered chimes. Very pretty sound and not too loud or obnoxious. There are nice restroom facilities right by all of this, but they do close in winter so you'll have to use the port-a-potty during the off season. The last thing I will note about the sand play area is it's fully exposed and you will bake in the summer, so bring sunscreen! There are some covered areas a couple hundred feet away with benches though, so you can escape the heat over there.

The most defining feature of the park are the 'faces', which are woven from branches of willow and dogwood. They are quite large and you can go inside them. My kid and her friends always have a blast playing hide and seek and chasing each other around them. This area is surrounded by several large Douglas Firs, so it's another area to get out of the sun.

The pedestrian bridge that was built is really cool, and you can get nice views of Rock Creek and wetlands below. I haven't researched it, but it looks like they did some river/floodplain restoration as you can see several areas where large Woody debris has been placed. I'll have to look into this more and maybe do an update, since I do that kind of stuff in as part of my career.

There's other stuff at the park too, but these are the main features. It's definitely worth a visit; and I usually take my kid there 5-10 times over a summer.

The final thing I will note is this is a NO-FLY area, as it's too close to Hillsboro airport. So if you're hoping to fly a drone at the park it will have to be one without the software based area restriction locks that drones such as DJI have. I was a bit bummed about this as I wanted to get some nice shots of the bridge and restoration areas, but safety is important and I'm a responsible pilot who doesn't want to run the hobby for others by flying where...

Clean park with an awesome play area for young kids. They had a water feature so kids could play in the sand and direct the water or presumably make sand castles. Lots of logs to crawl and balance on. A really cool big web structure to climb on. I saw two picnic bench shelters. Only a short area is dog friendly. The longer trail loop that isn't dog friendly starts as pea gravel one way and starts as paved the opposite way and is bark in between. The stroller did pretty good on it, but the bigger heavier strollers meant for multiple kids might not roll as well.

Cool little bridge areas give a neat view but probably wouldn't be great if you are afraid of heights. Loved the history on the old house that was there and the cool wooden bridge. It does have the metal apple structure but the woven wood structure is gone now.

Not a very long trail but could be lengthened but taking a detour through the neighborhood of cookie cutter houses that had nice lawns and good sidewalks. (The residential area that is older by the school didn't have sidewalks). There is a take a book/leave a book structure by the parking lot too. It was almost empty but I will take a dozen books or so...

Review update, 4th July 2022: Last visit was three months ago, this park is even nore beautiful late summer! Loved the lush foilage and walks fir the second time round. Previous review, late March 2022: Loved our trip to this park. Great loop walks and gives great pics! Also a good playground with sandpit and swings. Please note that it looks as though the previously present bee hive-like structures or sculptures are no longer present in this park. We saw the pics and went looking for them but they were no longer here. It's still well worth going to this park though, as the trails and areas are beautiful in themselves. The bridges are particularly lovely to view and take photos of, and the wildlife...