Mount Talbert, a 745-foot extinct volcanic cinder cone the largest remaining undeveloped butte in northern Clackamas County. It is covered with 200 acres of second-growth firs, Oregon white oaks, and pocket-size meadows. Stretching from Portland’s Rocky Butte southward to the Clackamas River, a group of extinct volcanoes and lava domes lend unique geographic character to the region’s east side, providing important wildlife habitat and panoramic vistas. The Mt. Talbert nature park includes the top of the former lava dome as well as the west facing slopes. The park offers miles of new hiking trails, information about the cultural and natural resources found there and greater access to nature close to home.
A series of interpretive signs along the trails provide visitors information about the plants and animals that can be seen – and heard – at the nature park. Residents and visitors to Mount Talbert include deer, coyotes, raccoons, Western gray squirrel, rubber boa, pileated and hairy woodpeckers, white-breasted nuthatch, Western tanager and many more. A revitalized oak savanna and a wet prairie meadow, two increasingly rare habitats in the Northern Willamette Valley, are found at Mount Talbert. A 1/2-mile stroller-friendly gravel trail leads from the park entrance to a small native prairie that blooms with wildflowers such as camas and woolly sunshine in the spring.
Mount Talbert is the green hill that catches the eye of travelers along Interstate 205, southeast of Clackamas Town Center. Just east of the freeway, between houses atop Mount Scott and the Camp Withycomb National Guard Base, Mount Talbert's summit somehow escaped the march of suburbia.
Metro area residents bought it with money raised by the 1995 open spaces bond measure passed by Portland-area voters. Opened as a nature park in 2007, the volcanic butte's 4.2 miles of trails over 200 wooded acres are being discovered by an increasing number of visitors. Mount Talbert Nature Park offers a surprising wild feeling for such an urban setting, more akin to hiking in the Mount Hood National Forest than a suburban neighborhood.
The main trail quickly climbs up the butte. It passes through Douglas fir trees, with an understory of Oregon grape and sword ferns, into an Oregon white oak woodland. Once common in the Willamette Valley, oak habitat is rare these days in the Portland area. As spring nears, the trees will be bearing new leaves and the Oregon grape will show off the yellow that is the state flower.
Dogs are NOT ALLOWED on these trails. Please be considerate of this area and leave the Geopups in the car.
Remember to use the boot scrapers at the entrances to the trails. Let's try our best to help out those who are trying to keep out invasive plant species. Use stealth as you search for the cache! Watch out for the occasional muggle hiker!