Portland, Oregon has the biggest city park of any city in the world.  It is called Forest Park.  It is over 5100 acres!  It would take more than a week to hike all of the trails in Forest Park.

On the first sunny Saturday of the year, we decided that cleaning the house wasn't very fun so we escaped.  My dad suggested that we do a little hike in Forest Park called Lower Balch Creek. 

Balch Creek was named after the family who homesteaded the area in 1850.  The family is infamous because the father was the first person to be hung in Portland for murder. Mr. Balch shot and killed the man who his 15 year old daughter ran off with.

The park is neat because it is so close to downtown Portland.  Only a few minutes drive and you are there.  We parked and started down the trail and soon we were hiking along the creek.  It was very nice, but very muddy. 

  There were lots of little waterfalls everywhere. 

After about 1/2 mile we came to a ruined stone building that used to be a bathroom.  but it would be very, very breezy if it was still a bathroom!  It was built by the Civilian Conservation Corps in the early 1930's ('Corps' is pronounced Core and not Corpse, by the way).

About a mile later we came to a big wooden grate that the creek disappeared into.    From there it flows through a big pipe all the way to the Willamette River.  This wooden grate was HUGE!!  It looked really old.  At the Grate the trail ended and we were in the city again so we turned around and headed back up the trail which wasn't as much fun as coming down since it was all uphill.

When we got back to the car, we decided to drive into downtown Portland and see some of the statues.  I especially wanted to see the 'Umbrella Man' statue.  My Grandma has a snow globe of Portland and it has this statue in it.  Since downtown Portland is so close to the park it only took a few minutes to get there.  The statue is in Pioneer Square.  We took a picture of me with my arm in his. 

We then headed home.  It was a short day of adventuring, but it sure was fun!