This big yet easy adventure is a lot of fun if you have a spare day in Portland.
While Dawn visited friends in Hillsboro, Hayden and I opted to stay in Portland to Christmas shop and explore. In doing online research of things to do in the city, I learned of the 4-T trail. The 4 Ts of the trail are Tram, Trolley, Train, and Trail. We were staying downtown near Pioneer Courthouse Square, so our first T would be the MAX train. The train took us inside the Robertson Tunnel where you get off at the Washington Park/Oregon Zoo MAX station. From here you take the elevator 260 feet up to the Oregon Zoo.
Before I get into any specifics about directions or anything like that, I'll just say enjoy my post, but get directions and information from the 4-T trail website. This is the site I used when we went to navigate the trail. We only got slightly sidetracked as we were looking for the Tram near OHSU.
One final note: As of this writing, the Tram is closed on Sundays in the winter. Check the tram's website for schedule. You wouldn't want your fourth T to be a Taxi!
Pioneer Courthouse Square Train stop. This is where the fun began.Hayden was not in the mood to explore so I got the tongue. Later when he was actually enjoying the adventure, I still got the tongue, LOL.THis is where you catch the elevator up to the ZooGoing up!There was really good signage on the whole trailStill giving me the tongueAlmost hard to get lost unless you're not paying attention.After leaving the Zoo, you cross the freewayOnce across the freeway, the trail section finally startsNice trailCouldn't have asked for a better winter day to be outsideThere are nice maps when you get to Marquam Park. Unfortunately it is only for part of the trail section and not the whole 4-T trail.Marquam Trail MapCold but beautiful day to be in Portland. I imagine in the summer these trails are full of people. We saw people but not as many as I would have expected.OK, so by now he was having fun, LOL.Mt hood view from Council Crest. Council Crest is the high spot of the trailCouncil CrestThe trail starts going down from Council CrestIt goes in and out of different neighborhoods and crosses the street a few times but is mostly in the woods. For an urban trail it is very nice.This house can be seen from the trail. It was one of the oddest shaped houses I have ever seen. It almost looks like an optical trick of the camera lens, but notice how square the house next to it is.Down, down the trail goes.Nice forest trail. Notice all the invasive English Ivy? I read a sign somewhere that said a group was working on removing the ivy. Seems like an impossible job to me.Finally, the Marquam shelter. The trail veers off to the right from here going uphill to the OHSU campus where the tram lives. If you keep going downhill, you'll get to the street and a sidewalk. If you do that you've gone too far. We got lost here because the signage was lacking. When we realized we went too far, we found where we missed the turn and all was well until we got to the top up the hill near the campus. Again, up here the signage was lacking, but we figured it out.When you get to the top of the hill on the trail, you'll be on a road. Go left towards the campus. When you get to the main part of the campus you'll see the 4-T trail signs again.After following the 4-T trail signs, start looking for the Tram signs.Tram signs. You will be going through the OHSU campus to get to the Tram.Tram signageWaiting for the tramWaiting for the tram
Video of the tram
Tram arrivingGood grief! LOLHAHAThe tram is really futuristic looking
Video of riding the tram
For the final leg of the trip, you ride the trolley.The trolley takes you all the way back to near the beginning at Pioneer Courthouse Square.To finish our adventure, after getting off the trolley we walked over to Nordstrom and had lunch at the cafeteria.Nordstom'sThese Santas were on display in a window nearbyAn army of SantasAnd finally to end the day, we stopped by to take a look at the tree. I finally caught him with his tongue IN his mouth, LOL.
