Marine Drive

Marine Drive Bike Route

From Troutdale in the east, you ride right along the Columbia River passing I-205, I-5, and the Expo Center in the west. When the path along the Columbia ends, you turn south along N. Portland Road for about half a mile then pick up the Marine Drive path again heading west. You can finish this ride with a trip through Kelly Point Park where the Willamette River flows into the Columbia. The total length from the Troutdale Airport to Kelly Point park is about 20 miles. (see also: Peninsula Crossing Trail into downtown)

You can tell by looking at the sky that the pictures below were not all taken on the same day! These pictures are in order from east to west, on a westbound ride.


to Marine Drive by Troutdale Airport	next to Marine Drive in Troutdale	on the street instead of on path (left)


near Blue Lake Park	between Troutdale & I-205	approaching I-205 bridge


I-205 bridge behind us	I-205 bridge	Portland International Airport


"Sea Scout Base"	"Sea Scout Base" behind us	I-205 bridge in the distance


looking west (I-5 bridge barely visible)	along Marine Drive	along Marine Drive


approaching I-5	heading west under I-5	passing the Expo Center


houseboats north of the Expo Center	houseboats north of the Expo Center	along the river


approaching end of river portion	south along N. Portland Road for 1/2 mile before crossing at a crosswalk	Yes, this really is the right way when crossing N. Portland Road.


continuing Marine Drive bike path	bike path	bike path


path joins Marine Drive again	along Marine Drive	along Marine Drive


approaching the end	entrance to Kelly Point Park	Kelly Point Park


Kelly Point Park	Kelly Point Park

We have ridden all or part of this route a number of times and have enjoyed it very much. Riding along side the Columbia River on the bike path is one of the prettiest rides. However, our overall assessment of the bike path on this route is not that great. I haven't calculated it out with our odometer, but I would guess that we only ride on about half of the bike path, the rest of the time we stay on the roadway of Marine Drive. Places are simply poorly designed and poorly maintained. The design issues have mostly to do with intersections. The worst is where the bike path drops you off at the intersection of Marine Drive and 122nd. That is a bad vehicular intersection in a car, and the path puts you right there, at a weird angle, on a bike. Some of the street crossings around Blue Lake Park and also challenging. The second issue is maintenance. In several sections, roots from nearby trees have grown under the path and created one to two-inch ridges across the pathway. You just about need a mountain bike with full suspension. It is especially bad for us on a tandem. With much more weight on each tire, we don't pop up and over bumps as well as a single might. When we were new at riding, on our first few trips along this route we took the bike path. We noticed that many experienced bike riders did not take the path and chose instead to stay on the roadway. We have now joined them. I guess the easiest way to describe our choices are that we ride the three sections of the path that are on the north side of Marine Drive (next to the river), but none of the sections that are on the south side. Which means when headed west we are on the bike path from approximately: 175th to 140th, I-205 to 45th, and I-5 to the N. Portland Road. Those sections offer good roadway and beautiful views. The exception to this is portion of the path from N. Portland Road out west to Kelly Point Park, it's very nice. It is a nice wide path that runs on the south side of Marine Drive through a fairly new industrial area. The only real challenging parts of Marine Drive are between 185th & 175th, and around Columbia Edgewater Country Club (~ 24th to 13th). There are no bike lanes and shoulders that are marginal. In short, if we were out for a leisurely ride with the family, we would stay on the path, but for a serious ride... well you know our choice.