Champoeg to Butteville Hike

Overview

Heading down from the Champoeg State Heritage Area Visitor Center, there are two directions one can go. A loop around the west side of the park takes you to the area of the Champoeg Townsite and the Provisional Government Monument (See the Champoeg Loop Hike). Going east takes you past the campground, a nature trail loop where Champoeg Creek joins the Willamette, and then a two-mile jaunt along a paved bicycle trail and roads to reach historic Butteville and its 1863 store and museum. Both walks can be combined for about eight miles of hiking. Before beginning the loop, take a tour of the small Visitor Center, which is well-worth your time. Here you can also pick up a map of the state park. A paved trail heads along behind the Visitor Center and past a gate leading to the grounds of the Manson Homestead. The 1862 barn has been restored; there’s also an apple orchard and a kitchen garden. Take the switchback downhill and cross Mission Creek on a footbridge. Then cross the park road and go right on a paved bicycle trail. Enter an open prairie and cross a branch of Mission Creek. Follow the trail as it parallels the road along an oak grove. Reach the junction with the Townsite Trail and keep on the bike trail. From here, the paved path crosses Champoeg Creek on a road bridge. Soon, there’s the junction with the Kitty Newell Trail, where you go left. This chip trail soon branches. Head left under cedar, grand fir, big-leaf maple and hazel to Kitty Newell’s Gravesite. The trail continues farther across a grassy field dotted with English daisies. There’s a lone picnic table. The trail becomes a narrow, muddy track that heads into the thickets above the creek and drops a little, ending up in a blackberry patch. Return to the junction and go left on the Nature Trail. At a junction, turn left in grand fir woods. Toothwort, trillium, and violets all bloom here in the spring. The trail reaches the bluff above the river and runs along it under Douglas-firs and cottonwoods. Reach a junction with a cutoff trail and kee

Trail Stats

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