Happy New Year!

We didn’t do much partying on New Year’s Eve, but we did enjoy a few movies and indulge in some to-be-unnamed fried food items, junk foods and champagne… To remedy this, Tracy and I started off our New Year by taking a hike up into the West Hills. It’s not much of a “nature hike” but it does provide some incredible views of our beloved city and the landscape beyond.

From our apartment, we just follow the South Park Blocks southwest, across I-405 and up the steep climb into the hills. There are many homes here, either dug into the earth or set out on stilts, each with a unique, albeit expensive view. And between a few of them are public stairs and nature walks, taking you up to the top. Further northwest, there is the expansive Forest Park, a huge forested park (aptly named) inside Portland city limits which we have unfortunately yet to experience. Until then, this convenient path will do.

Click here for an amateur panorama of the city and mountains. After the link opens, you can click the image for a larger view and scroll left and right. This is looking north and east across downtown Portland, the Wilamette River, East Portland and the hills. To the left, beyond downtown you can see Mount St. Helens way out in Washington and further to the right, you can see Mount Hood. The line of trees you see running into downtown is the South Park Blocks and is where we live…

This entry was posted on Monday, January 2nd, 2012 at 1100 AM and is filed under PDX. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.