Directions: In Corvallis, follow Harrison Blvd west through town. After crossing Walnut Blvd/NW 53 St, the road becomes NW Oak Creek Drive. Continue following it west, then take a slight left onto Cardwell Hill Road. Turn left onto Chinook Drive. Turn Right onto Chapparel Drive/Panorma Drive. Follow signs to the parking area.
About a 10-15 minute drive from OSU’s campus, Fitton Green Natural Area is a great local site for several activities – hiking, picnicking, running, photography, watching sunsets. Better yet, it’s much less crowded than other Corvallis parks and natural areas, such as Bald Hill or Chip Ross Park.
It’s also Benton County’s newest park. Elsie Fitton Ross and her husband Charles Ross, partnered with Greenbelt Land Trust, provided the funds to acquire the land, and now open to the public since 2003, it offers 308 acres explore.
A short, though pretty, loop begins at the parking area and follows a gated road a short distance. Soon, a dirt road heads up the hill to the left. Following it up leads to first a few awesome old oak trees, then to a panoramic view of the coast range, Mary’s Peak rising high in the center of it.
Adventuring on this road ends at a private property sign, but a trail veers off to the right in the open ridgetop meadow. A Douglas fir up ahead grows windbent on the crest, looking oddly alpine in the otherwise Willamette Valley environment.
Views soon unfold of the wide, flat expanse of the Valley and the Cascade foothills lining its eastern border. Further in the distance, glimpses of the Three Sisters and Mount Jefferson appear sporadically.
The trail switchbacks down off the meadow and once again becomes dirt road, again turning right to begin closing the loop. Following it straight (avoiding side roads to the left, including cryptic “Evacuation Route” signs) will eventually lead back to gravel road, where it curves once more to the right and heads slightly uphill for a short distance to return to the parking lot.
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