Best Hiking Trails in Salem

Minto-Brown Island Park encompasses 1,200 acres of lush, open, and wooded terrain. This makes Minto-Brown Island Park not just the largest park in Salem but also larger than New York City's Central Park. There is a 30-acre off-leash dog area with lots of space for your dog to wander, play, and socialize with other dogs. This park is also a wildlife and waterfowl sanctuary, which you can see from the observation platforms along the sloughs. Many diverse wetland wildlife, including blue herons, ospreys, squirrels, and rabbits, call this area home. Walk, run, or bike any of the nine loops' 29 miles of path. Riverfront Park is also accessible via the Peter Courtney Minto Island Bicycle and Pedestrian Bridge. The Union Street Railroad Bridge connects the riverfront area to the Wallace Marine area.

Joryville Park is a natural, wooded region with a brook trickling through it near the park's base. Mr. and Mrs. Edwin Jory, area pioneers, donated the land for a park to the South Salem Chamber of Commerce in the 1950s. The total length of the trail is 1.8 miles. The elevation gain of the trail is 259 feet. The trail is a loop type. The time taken to complete the total trial is approximately 47 minutes. The land was then deeded to Marion County by the Chamber after the SSCC was dissolved. A horse-riding arena at the entrance was built with the help of 4-H members. Work relief workers were used to build equestrian and pedestrian routes from the bottom to the top of the hill. With the help of Federal Land and Water money, the roads through the park and the parking space at the top of the hill near the shelter building surfaced with tarmac.

The Croisan Scenic Trail and Skyline Trail are two wooded "pocket trails" hidden inside South Salem neighborhoods. The total length of the trail is 1.5 miles. The elevation gain of the trail is 278 feet. The trail is out and back type. The time taken to complete the total trial is approximately 43 minutes. Each is about a mile long, including branches and spurs, and the two are connected by a few blocks on quiet suburban streets. Joggers, dog walkers, bird watchers, hikers, and the occasional mountain biker or bike commuter use these routes, which provide easy access to neighboring neighborhoods. The Skyline Trail is located within Skyline Park, an otherwise undeveloped City Park directly adjacent to Sprague High School, and the Croisan Scenic Trail follows the undeveloped right of way of Croisan Scenic Way, beginning near Schirle School and ends near Nelson City Park on Croisan Creek Road.