Oregon City - McLoughlin Promenade

We had been  on parts of the McLoughlin Promenade before as we explored Oregon City, but we wanted to do the whole thing. That can be a little confusing.

One end of the path is the McLoughlin house site, which contains both the McLoughlin house and the Barclay house.

These connect by a fun little under road tunnel that can be taken to either a stairway down to the lower level of Oregon City, or to the Municipal Elevator and the rest of the Promenade.

It would not be unreasonable to think of the Promenade as the path that picks up at the parking lot on 6th and High (just past the elevator), and that ends at the VFW. That way, you have an uninterrupted pathway with park on the side.

There are wildflower plantings, and places to sit and play.

There are also a few more views of the Falls.

However, before you end up in that not very scenic VFW parking lot, you may have noticed a pathway that goes down, across the road, and back to ground level.

That is also part of the trail, and it goes on for about another half mile.

This is especially important because it is surprisingly difficult to find a clear delineation of the path of the promenade or its actual length. There is a lot of signage while you are on it confirming that you are on it, however.

Despite a little confusion, it is clearly well-used. We found many other walkers - with and without dogs - and people with children and people just sitting and enjoying the view. 

I was pleased to see that people were being good about masks. That has not been true everywhere.

It would be relatively easy to build one route where you start at the McLoughlin/Barclay houses. take the Promenade past the elevator to maybe Bluff and High Street, and then take John Adams Street to the Pioneer Community Center, Carnegie Park and the library, and catch the other two historic houses, Stevens-Crawford and Francis Ermatinger. That would be one way of seeing a lot of Oregon City.

However that path would really only include a short section of the Promenade, and not include a ride on the elevator, and a lot would be missed. Multiple trips to Oregon City have shown us that there is no convenient path to take in everything.

We keep going back because we like the things that we see and we want to see more.

https://www.orcity.org/parksandrecreation/mcloughlin-promenade