The captured official page publishes visiting hours. Check the source for current closures. Public-entry status is separate from wheelchair accessibility.
Official page label: Natural area; Atlas classification rules. Classification: source-labeled.
Source captured: 2026-06-02. Human verification: Pending.
Check current official informationPublished activities: find a published trail, be in a natural area, and be in a park.
Photo from the City's park pageRocky Butte is an extinct volcanic cinder cone butte with steep forested slopes visible from Interstates 205 and 84. Joseph Wood Hill Park is located at the top. The slopes of Rocky Butte are managed as the Rocky Butte Natural Area. The Butte is part of the Boring Lava Field, a group of over 30 cinder cones in Oregon and Washington. The site was formerly home to Rocky Butte Jail.
Formerly known as Wiberg Butte, a large quantity of rock was removed from the quarry on the east face of Rocky Butte in the 1940s for use in a new Multnomah County jail. After the jail was demolished in the 1980s, much of the stone was reused along the Historic Columbia River Highway.
From the City's page for this park.
Published amenities are checked separately from entry conditions. Each links to other documented locations; confirm current hours before visiting.
A natural area: habitat protection and stewardship guide what uses and facilities are appropriate. Classified from official page labels it a natural area; our model.
Something specific to this park — the thing you'd use it for if it were here.
Send an idea for this park →Public school grounds within a half mile, by straight line. What is listed is what OpenStreetMap mappers have recorded, not an inventory. The district sets public access.
On record: 1 playground. Not recorded in this property’s inventory: playground.
Beyond parks explains what opening a school ground would take.
School grounds: Metro RLIS. Features inside them: © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL).
Seasonal facilities and listings captured by the Atlas. These records do not measure attendance, utilization or all activity at the site.
Counts describe captured listings, not attendance or all activity. No listings captured does not mean the site is unused.
Dark by 5 and wet most days: cover, lighting, indoor rooms, and paths that drain.
Fields and gardens open; showers between sun. Leagues, planting, first picnics.
Water, shade, long evenings — the season the system is built around.
Light shortens and leagues wind down; shelters and lighting carry the season.
| Season | Programs | Recurring events | One-time |
|---|---|---|---|
Winter Dec–Feb Not yet published | — | — | — |
Spring Mar–May Recorded from 2026-06-11 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
Summer Jun–Aug Recorded from 2026-06-11 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
Fall Sep–Nov Recorded through 2026-10; 1 month still to come | 0 | 0 | 0 |
No current listings were captured and matched to this property. This does not establish that no activity takes place. See the citywide calendar and programs.
Community organizations that steward, fund, operate, or run programs at Rocky Butte Natural Area. Labels show what is confirmed and what is still being filled in.
Wants the forested land on the butte's east side, along I-205, opened to the public, with trails for walking, biking and climbing.
Friends of Rocky Butte: Creating a New ParkFriends of Rocky Butte: FAQReal ways to help Rocky Butte Natural Area and parks like it. This site does not process donations; every link below goes to an official giving or volunteering channel.
The City's own inventory of what is here and the condition it last recorded for each item. Dates are the source's; old dates mean no newer public assessment, not that nothing has happened since. Historical project estimates appear below; they are separate from these condition records.
Historical cost profile · 2023 reporting
Rocky Butte Natural Area
Not available
No historical estimate matched to this property. This does not mean no repair needs.
All-in annual service cost: Not established
Current remaining repair cost: Not verified
2 of 2 assessed built records are rated poor or very bad in the separate condition dataset. Condition ratings do not determine these dollar estimates.
Source: KGW’s November 2023 table. Current status, remaining scope and funding are unverified. Exact duplicate rows count once; other scope overlaps remain unresolved.
Compare repair estimates across parks →Annual service · FY 2026–27 adopted
This property has no named account linked in the public budget extract. Shared crews and citywide programs may still fund its care.
Later budget supplements and unallocated shared services are not included.
Annual breakdown & district context →District picture · District 3
The same public records, read the same way for every property, so this park can be set next to its district. Each figure keeps its own source and date. “Not available” means the source has no record for this property. It is not a zero.
2020 Census blocks whose centre point lies within a half mile of the park boundary, measured in a straight line. Residents, not visitors. Blocks outside the city limits count.
Records in the PP&R backlog map workbook that name this property. The workbook publishes no cost field, so these are counts of records, not dollars.
Geocoded PP&R capital projects at this property, a subset of the full capital program. The cost is the published estimated total project cost, not spending to date.
Stewardship group on record
A conservancy, friends group or stewardship partner is on record here. The split of tasks between staff and volunteers is not published.
From the department-provided partnership directory. It records what is on paper, not who does each task.
Across 2 assessed assets at this park, 100% are in poor or very-bad condition (rated 4–5). Pooled from the City's public assessment layers — buildings, bridges, playgrounds, courts, fields, fences, paths and amenities.
This count comes from the City's rated asset layers; the “Public assets” list below is a separate furnishings inventory, so its items and scores are counted separately and the two totals need not match.
Condition is rated 1 (good) to 5 (very bad); no score means not yet assessed and is excluded. Park trees are inventoried separately and not counted here. These assessment records do not contain repair costs. Historical project estimates are shown separately.
Public data does not currently flag repair candidates for this park. Additional PP&R maintenance exports can be added without changing the page structure.
Seen something here that's broken, fixed, or missing from this list? Records are updated periodically; tell us what you see.
Send a condition note →Furnishings the City inventories here, with each item's condition score — 1 is good, 5 is very bad. Asset photos aren't public yet.
Rocky Butte Natural Area on Portland.gov
The City closes the gate into the park from May 1 through October 31 annually to prevent motor vehicle access to the loop portion of NE Rocky Butte Road adjacent to Joseph Wood Hill Park.
5:00 a.m. to midnight. Parking around the park is restricted in the evening; review parking signage carefully.
All dogs must be leashed in this park.
The QR label for this park points here. Print labels →
https://parks.portlandciviclab.org/parks/rocky-butte-natural-area-568?utm_source=park_qr&utm_medium=sign&utm_campaign=park_568
Facilities from the City's amenity pages and asset layers; hours, photo, and history from the City's park page; programs and events from its catalogs; condition from PortlandMaps public records. Where the City publishes nothing, this page says so instead of guessing.