The Oregonian ran an article recently about holiday light displays:
We had never heard of The Lighting of Maddax Woods, so we decided to check it out.
It is a pretty small display, covering a small area, but it is fun to look at and it is free, which cannot be said about most of the other displays.
Virgil Maddax was a boat builder, and the largest single light display is a large sailboat in tribute to him.
Most of the emphasis is on nature though. There are representations of flora and fauna.
The animals are represented not just by lights, but also with painted wooden cutouts.
Each animal featured is one that can actually be found in the area. There is a checklist you can use to make sure you spot them all, but that might work better in the day.
The lights mainly focus around a small loop that includes a boat loading area (blocked off in winter), a viewing platform for the river with a picnic table, and that runs by the Maddax house. There is another path that goes up to overlook the city, but that seemed more like something for daytime.
A photo display shows pictures of both Virgil and Dorothy Maddax, Dorothy often surrounded by the geese she kept, and we found some reminders of them as well. (Though I believe her geese were domestic, and this was clearly a Canada goose.)
There are two things to keep in mind. One is that while the Oregonian article says that the path is accessible, only part of it is actually bricked in, while there is a lot of walking on soft dirt and a section of steps. If navigation could be an issue, a daytime visit is probably preferable.
In addition, when we got near (approaching on River Street) we saw a lit wide paved road, so thought it was the trail, and there was no parking. We were about to risk parking in a "County vehicles only" spot, but then saw a car on what we thought was the trail. That was in fact the road that takes you the rest of the way -- not particularly wide, but following that there is some parking.
(It's still better than trying to get to anything in Lake Oswego.)
http://westlinnoregon.gov/parksrec/lighting-maddax-woods
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