Fore River Sanctuary

This is a beautiful 85-acre Portland Trails oasis in the city that is popular with walkers, runners and bird watchers (and the ubiquitous mountain bike riders!). If you start on Congress Street, you begin along a former canal (the Cumberland and Oxford Canal), a lowland area with salt and freshwater. The path, in springtime, is lined with grasses, wildflowers and shrubs; butterflies and birds fly overhead.

From this start, you head into the woods and eventually to Jewell Falls, Portland’s only natural (and surprisingly large) waterfall. Portland Trails has built some steps beside it, or you can take curving bike trails from top to bottom. At the top of the falls, there is a bridge across the street, and the trails are wider, smoother, and more accessible. So for those who prefer a gentler and shorter walk, I recommend starting at one of the entrances on Rowe Avenue (where you can park along the street or down at the official trailhead parking area at the end of the dead-end road), or at the end of Hillcrest Avenue.

For those who want to slip away for a while into a quiet woods, you can do a fairly extensive walk if you carry on all the way to Westbrook Street and back and do the loops in the woods. It’s about one mile from the parking lot on Congress Street to Jewell Falls. 

Directions: According to Portland Trails, you can park in several places, including Maine Orthopaedic Center’s lot at 1601 Congress Street (only in the 5 marked spaces closest to Frost St.); at the end of Rowe Ave.; at the end of Hillcrest Ave.; across the street from the Westbrook St. trailhead, on the wide shoulder; on Starbird Lane (only in the designated spaces); and on Technology Park Drive (3-4 spaces).