Few local places have captured my interest in the same way as Eola Bend County Park, one of the oddest little destinations in Salem. Located along the Willamette River, the only way to access this 60-acre park is by hiking or biking the trails through Minto-Brown Island Park to the area's northwest corner.
COBURG - When winter flooding knocks out the gravel road leading to it, Green Island lives up to its name. This time of year, there's a land bridge to the 1,100-acre parcel of land, making it easier for people to get to it when the McÂKenzie River Trust throws it open to the public today for the first time since the Trust acquired it 10 years ago.
There's a nifty little fishing hole/hiking/day-use area about 10 minutes from Salem that you've probably driven by lots of times but never noticed. The landmark for how to find it used to be a falling-down barn, which eventually did fall down and was hauled away.
Any happy campers out there? I can't imagine anyone had a finer spot, without backpacking great distances, than I did last night. I camped at Buckskin Mary, river mile 145.8 on the Willamette River Water Trail. It's an undeveloped Oregon state park campsite. The sign is about the only indication that it's public land.
Having a Friday night campsite with no one around was matched by a Saturday afternoon picnic site on the Willamette River Water Trail. For recreationists who enjoy solitude, peace and quiet, the Willamette is the place to go. In fact, we saw only one other moving boat during our 30-mile paddle from Harrisburg to Corvallis, Friday afternoon to Saturday afternoon.
It takes some looking to find the headwaters of the Marys River. Off a decommissioned logging road along the Coast Range divide near Little Grass Mountain in southern Polk County, the river starts out as a silvery trickle in a small ravine, just broad enough to catch the sunlight squeezing between second-growth fir trees.
