Milo McIver State Park is a state park in the

U.S. state In the United States, a state is a constituent political entity, of which there are 50. Bound together in a political union, each state holds governmental jurisdiction over a separate and defined geographic territory where it shares its sove ...

Oregon Oregon () is a state in the Pacific Northwest region of the Western United States. The Columbia River delineates much of Oregon's northern boundary with Washington, while the Snake River delineates much of its eastern boundary with Idaho. T ...

. It is in

Clackamas County Clackamas County is one of the 36 counties in the U.S. state of Oregon. As of the 2020 census, the population was 421,401, making it Oregon's third-most populous county. Its county seat is Oregon City. The county was named after the Native ...

along the

Clackamas River The Clackamas River is an approximately tributary of the Willamette River in northwestern Oregon, in the United States. Draining an area of about , the Clackamas flows through mostly forested and rugged mountainous terrain in its upper reaches, a ...

, near Estacada and close to Mount Hood.

History

The park was named in honor of Milo K. McIver. McIver was an

Oregon Highway Commission The Oregon Department of Transportation (ODOT) is a department of the state government of the U.S. state of Oregon responsible for systems of transportation. It was first established in 1969. It had been preceded by the Oregon State Highway Depar ...

member from April 1, 1950, to March 31, 1962, and commission chairman from April 1, 1958, to March 31, 1962. McIver set a record for long service with the commission. His 12-year term exceeded by a year and a half that of Ben R. Chandler. His facility in the fields of realty, property management, financing and industrial development were instrumental in investing nearly $1 billion on about of new highway. During his term as chairman, Oregon led all other states in opening interstate freeways. In 1970, the park was the site of

Vortex I Vortex I: A Biodegradable Festival of Life, more commonly known as just Vortex I, was a week-long rock festival in Oregon in 1970. It was sponsored by the Portland counterculture community, with help from the state of Oregon in Clackamas County ne ...

, a government-sponsored music festival.

Flora and fauna

The park contains a colony of

Townsend's big-eared bat Townsend's big-eared bat (''Corynorhinus townsendii'') is a species of vesper bat. Description Townsend's big-eared bat is a medium-sized bat (7-12 g)

s, considered a sensitive species in Oregon. The largest Yew in Oregon is located in the park.

Amenities

The park has many amenities for various activities, including day use and overnight camping, primitive camp sites, hiking and horse trails, boating, bird watching and a disc golf course. The equestrian trail system and facilities include: a very large parking area, portable toilets, a covered picnic area, a handicapped mounting ramp, a regular

mounting block A mounting block, horse block, carriage stone, or in Scots a loupin'-on stane is an assistance for mounting and dismounting a horse or cart. Usage and locations Mounting blocks were especially useful for women riding sidesaddle or pillion, that ...

, an outdoor warm-up arena, a small round pen, and several training stations along the upper trail loop. The stations include: a

teeter-totter A seesaw (also known as a teeter-totter or teeterboard) is a long, narrow board supported by a single pivot point, most commonly located at the midpoint between both ends; as one end goes up, the other goes down. These are most commonly found a ...

bridge, a suspension bridge, a farm gate, a back through chute, a "mountain trail" area with small boulders, roots, and logs to step through, two large logs to cross and sidepass, a small water crossing, concrete

cavaletti Cavaletti (also spelled cavalletti, singular (rarely used in English) cavaletto) (Italian: "little horse") are small jumps, originally made of wood, used for basic horse training. Most consist of rails that are about wide, and long. The rai ...

to cross, a two-tiered step-up box, and an

balance beam The balance beam is a rectangular artistic gymnastics apparatus and an event performed using the apparatus. Both the apparatus and the event are sometimes simply referred to as "beam". The English abbreviation for the event in gymnastics scoring i ...

, long, with a 20-degree bend in the middle. There are also two small bridges over small streams. The park's master plan calls for the construction of a horse camping area as well.

References

Parks in Clackamas County, Oregon State parks of Oregon {{ClackamasCountyOR-geo-stub