Molalla River State Park

Molalla River State Park is a state park located in Oregon, near the town of Canby, where the Pudding River and Molalla River join together before entering into the Willamette River. The park is a little under a square mile in area, and was opened in 1979, part of the unfinished project to create a network of parks along the Willamette River

When first entering the park, a visitor would be greeted by the typical park things --- a large grassy field, with restrooms, picnic tables, and a trail down to the river. And if you take that trail, that is when the madness will strike. Oregon can be very rainy, and it naturally has many wetland areas, most of which have been drained and channelized. Here, the wetland delta of the Pudding and Mollala River, with their origins in the Cascades, is left in a near-natural state, with the rivers bending widely, and having many pools, wetlands, and gravel bars, along with the thick (to the point in inpenetrable) vegetation. I once spent a long afternoon with ideath, lost in the scrub, and after coming home, realized that we were probably only a quarter mile from the parking lot. This is significant because there are few areas that perserve the natural character of Willamette River wetlands, and this is the closest one to the Portland area.