.jpg)
Willmate Mission State Park & Birthday Celebrations
Exciting news this week, Brontë turned 3 over the weekend. We went to the Willamette Mission State Park for a hike to celebrate. It had some decent usage. It is close to Salem about a 20-minute drive. The park boasts of camping (in season), bike trails, horse/ mixed use trails and had a fairly large disc golf course. The weather was perfect for a winter day, cool but dry, crisp air was our continuous companion on this trip.
The park is located in the valley along the Willamette river.
It seems to be a place where bird watching would be prime. We walked around 4 miles along the paved bike path. There were horses on the mixed trails along with them being muddy. I decided I didn't want to be that dirty. We will hit some of the other trails the next time we visit. There were pretty views and several benches overlooking the river that were very pleasant. The paved trail we took would be great for the non-able-bodied community. I have not found many that are this friendly. It seems to be a
good place to get out and walk not strenuously but enough to enjoy being outside and in nature. There are many bird housed stroon around the park. I imagine that throughout the year there is some very active bird populations around.
One factor that I consider is how well the dog policy is followed. There were several dogs at the park.
Gratefully all were leashed and under control. It is nice because my pup does not want to say hi. I like to go places where the dogs are leashed so I can control how and when Brontë is introduced. It went really well this weekend. There does seem to be a space set aside for loose dogs. We did not check it out this time around however we will look at going there for some frisbee time is Brontë wants to and there are not any other dogs.
One pleasant surprise was the Wheatland Ferry. It was fun for us to watch it cross several times in our walking towards it. The ferry made all sorts of noises that surprised Brontë. We will return to cross it in the future, just for the expereince.
Overall this was a great trip and a fun park that is good for
anyone both able bodied and non-able bodied. I think this will be a good spot to come when we do not want to travel far. There are far more trails to explore. I may even come back for some disc golf or camping. It is not the mountains, but it is a gem of potential bird watching and relatively flat trails.
Brontë and I finished off her Birthday with a bully stick, burritos, her cake toy, birthday singing rigmarole and a little bone broth in her kibble. This was a successful celebration. We will most definently return here for some more adventures, perhaps a picnic and some disc.
